Perspectives on Lakes Tahoe, Baikal and

Khuvsgul

Gantulga Bayasgalan

Desert Research Institute,Tahoe Baikal Institute,

Mongolian University of Science and Technology

Outline

• Tahoe Baikal Institute

• Summer Environmental Exchange

• Alumni Internship Exchange

• Comparison of Lake Baikal, Lake Khuvsgul, Lake Tahoe

• Lake Tahoe Nearshore Clarity Monitoring

Tahoe Baikal Institute

Established in 1990, the Tahoe-Baikal Institute (TBI) is a partnership between Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada and Lake Baikal in Southern Siberia that organizes watershed management and environmental exchanges to foster cultural understanding and to develop young environmental leaders.

Lake Tahoe

What is significant?Tahoe is one of the ten deepest lakes on the world and among the clearest

Lake Baikal

Lake Khuvsgul

Sister Lakes RUSSIAN FEDERATION

CHINA

The goal of TBI’s flagship program, the Summer Environmental Exchange is to help develop community leaders, resource professionals, and environmental stewards around the world by exposing them to watershed issues through a place-based, interdisciplinary sense at both Lake Tahoe and Lake Baikal.

• The SEE consists of :

• Small-group investigative projects,

• Hands-on ecological restoration work

• Meetings with experts and policy-makers

• Interactive workshops that simulate environmental problem-solving scenarios

Summer Environmental Exchange Program

• In this endeavor the Institute develops:

• Community leaders, resource professionals, and

• Environmental stewards across the intersections of watershed education,

• Protection & restoration

• Research, policy

• Sustainable economic development

• Environmental technology transfer

• Cultural understanding

TBI focuses on:

The program includes a short orientation and training by the TBI staff, and four weeks of working at a host organization as an intern/researcher as well as various recreational and cultural activities.

U.S, Russian, Mongolian and international alumni will be given the opportunity to revisit Lake Tahoe (or the surrounding region) or the Lake Baikal watershed in Russia or Mongolia and get to work for a month with an organization that fits in with their career development goals

Alumni Internship Exchange Program

Other Programs• Mongolian Youth

Weekend

• USFS Grants for professional Exchange (at both Lake Baikal in Siberia and in Mongolia)—topics include environmental education, interpretive services and recreational planning for protected lands)

• Education Partnerships and Outreach (STEEC, Wonders of Water Week, Earth Day, Outdoor Explore, Great Sierra River Clean Up, Tahoe Basin Watershed Education Summit)

• Eurasia Foundation CSPP International Grassroots Collaboration for Sustainable Community Development

Comparison of Lake Tahoe, Lake Baikal, Lake Khuvsgul

Lake Baikal Lake Tahoe Lake Khuvsgul

Lake comparison table

Lakes Tahoe Baikal Khuvsgul

Basin Countries USA Russia/Mongolia Mongolia

Average depth /m/ 300 744.5 138

Maximum depth /m/ 502 1642 268

Surface area /km2/ 496.21 31722 2760

Shoreline perimeter /km/ 114 2100 380

Origin Tectonics/block faulting Tectonics/Rift valley Tectonics/Rift valley

Max length /km/ 35 636 136

Max width /km/ 19 79 36.5

Salinity/Freshwater Fresh Fresh Fresh

Existing place Sierra Nevada Southern Siberia Eastern Sayan

Age /years/ 2-4 million 25-30 million 2 million

Tahoe Baikal Khuvsgul0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

Surface Elevation (m)

Surface Elevation /m/

Tahoe

Baikal

Khuvsgul

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000

Surface area (km2)

Surface area /km2/

Tahoe Baikal Khuvsgul100

1000

10000

100000

Water volume (km3)

Water volume /km3/

Tahoe Baikal Khuvsgul0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Average depth /m/

Maximim depth /m/

Depth (m)

Lake comparison table

Lakes Tahoe Baikal Khuvsgul

Surface Elevation /m/ 1897 455.5 1645

Islands 1 27 4

Water volume /km3/ 150.682 23615.39 480.7

Residence time /years/ 650 330 ??

Settlements South Lake Tahoe Irkutsk Khatgal

Catchment area /km2/ 1310 560000 39840

Number of tributaries 63 331 99

Primary inflows Upper Truckee Selenga Arsain River

Primary outflows Lower Truckee Angara Egiin River

Ocean basin Continental/Pyramid Lake Arctic Arctic

Freeze status Never Januay/May January/May

Secchi /m/ 24 40 18

• Located on the border of the 2 large tectonic structures, Siberian platform and Sayan-Baikalsky folded thrust belt

• Tectonically active

• Earthquake tremors ~ 2000 annually

• Moving towards Pacific 2 mm annually

• In a distance of circa 50 years, earthquakes with strengths of over 6.5 on the Richter-scale may happen

Tectonics and geology of Lake Baikal

Tectonics and geology of Lake Baikal

• The Baikal rift zone is characterized by high surface heat flow, flanking normal faults, and lower upper mantle velocity.

• The 1500 km echelon system of rift depressions is the most seismically active continental rift in the world.

Lake Baikal Geology and fault map

• The Baikal rift is more than 2000 km away from the nearest active plate boundary

• Siberian Craton and Sayan belt origin in Precambrian and Palaeozoic collisions of terranes and continental blocks.

• Archean greenstone crustal cores and granite – gneiss – domes,

• Marbles, granulites, amphibolites, shists, gneisses and granitoids.

• The island arcs were once in front of the southern shore of the Siberian craton, before it collided with Laurentia and the supercontinent Rhodinia was formed.

Tectonics and geology of Lake Baikal

Lake Khuvsgul and Darkhad Depression

• Khuvsgul is one of the 25 oldest lakes on the world

• Water Clarity stands for one of the best on the world

• Contains 0.4 % of the surface freshwater reserve on the world and 70% of Mongolia

• Alpine freshwater lake at height of 1645 meters (5400 feet)

• Tectonic/Rift valley origin

• Calcium carbonate is common in the area along with phosphorus resources

Lake Baikal

Lake Khuvsgul

Sister Lakes

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

CHINA

Darkhad Depression

What is interesting from Darkhad Depression, Khuvsgul Lake area?

• Shorelines confirm that this area was once filled by the lake at a certain time.

• Catastrophic floods due to climate change in the end of LGM ~13000 years BP

• Moraine deposits on the confluence of rivers in the NW part of the study area

• Mollusk and shell remains were abundantly found in this area.

Darkhad and Khuvsgul climate reconstruction approaches

• Although geomorphological evidence can provide useful insights into former climatic regimes and environmental conditions, a more detailed impression of events during the Quaternary can often be gained from sedimentary records.

• The sedimentary accumulation is an archive of ancient earth story. It deposits with its important signatures such as climate, environment, and biologic features of particular period. Since it’s a record of old time, sedimentary record can give us enormous information about the past.

Ice damlocation?

Darkhad Depression

Ice damlocation?

Confluence of the rivers where ice dam was located

GTOPO 30 DEM Map

Location of ice dam and estimated filling of the lake using highest shoreline

(A. Gillespie et.al 2001)

Ice dam location on the confluence of the rivers and lateral moraine

(A. Gillespie et.al 2001)

Ancient lake shoreline

The confluence of the rivers where ice dam was located

Lake Tahoe geologic origin

• Marine deposition – meta-sedimentary remnants

• Granitic intrusion

• Tectonic uplift

• Volcanic eruptions

• Glacial scouring

• Erosion

Processes contribute to Geologic origin of Lake Tahoe:

Lake Tahoe

What is significant?Tahoe is one of the ten deepest lakes on the world and among the clearest

Lake Tahoe simplified geology map (Adapted from R. Schweickert et. al, 2009)

Fault map of Lake Tahoe superimposed over DEM and bathymetry map

Red: Active faultsBlack: Age relation unknown

Adapted from Schweickert et.al 2004

Tectonics and geology of Lake Tahoe

• The oldest rocks in the area are seen as isolated remnants of metamorphosed Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks

• The metamorphic remnants are the products of ancient volcanic arcs and related submarine sedimentary deposits

Tectonics and geology of Lake Tahoe

• Prior to the main uplift of the Sierra Nevada ancient Tertiary (Eocene?) rivers passed through the area carving channels

• These rivers also provided the channels that carried the volcanic flows and debris from the early volcanic centers

Tectonics and geology of Lake Tahoe

• Volcanism was widespread during the Tertiary.

• The early volcanic episode was followed by a period that extended through most of the Miocene and into the Pliocene

• Volcanic eruptions continued into the Pleistocene and consisted mainly of basalt and latite flows

• During the Pleistocene, glaciation played a major role in the shaping of the landscape.

• Faulting has played a part in the formation of Lake Tahoe.

• It is generally accepted that Lake Tahoe was formed by a combination of block faulting and damming of the outlet, at the north end of the basin

Tectonics and geology of Lake Tahoe

• Having tectonic origin• Exceptionally deep and clear• Alpine Lakes• Glaciation plays an important role• Currently tectonically active• Cut by several major faults• And, keeping their clarity, pristine state is

important

Geologic similarities among Lakes Baikal, Khuvsgul and Tahoe

Lake Tahoe Nearshore Monitoring

Gantulga Bayasgalan, Angela Stevens, Alan Heyvaert, Charles Morton Brian Fitzgerald, Rick Susfalk, Tim Minor and Ken Taylor

Desert Research Institute,Tahoe Baikal Institute,

Mongolian University of Science and Technology

Importance of Monitoring

• How to keep these types of lakes clean and clear is a critical management question– they contain significant portions of the total

surface freshwater reserve on earth. • Most previous work at Lake Tahoe has been

conducted in the mid-lake or pelagic zones.– More recently, work has begun to investigate

changes in nearshore conditions.

Water Clarity

• Decline in water clarity due to atmospheric wet/dry deposition, sediment mixtures in runoff, and other anthropogenic impacts

• Traditional methods of measurement– Secchi Disk – Turbidimeters– Transmissometers

Lake Tahoe Water Clarity

• Lake Tahoe’s annual average Secchi depth has decreased by about one-third since the 1960s.

http://terc.ucdavis.edu

Data Collection

Pump intake on boom. Thermister.

Flowmeter

Relative Chlorophyll

Turbidity

Light Transmissivity

Nearshore divided into 1-km long sections for spatial analysis of turbidity and transmissivity.

South Lake

Incline Village

Emerald Bay

King’s Beach

Mean of means and mean for coefficients of variation for turbidity and transmissivity displayed by 1-km nearshore sections (reaches). Whole-lake means included all nearshore sections, eleven surveys.

Turbidity

Turbidity measurements from Lake Tahoe nearshore circuits. Data were assembled in 1-km sections to represent the aggregate measurements within each section for that run and the corresponding coefficient of variation for data within each section.

Transmissivity

Transmissivity measurements from Lake Tahoe nearshore circuits. Data were assembled into 1-km sections to represent the aggregate measurements within each section for that run and the corresponding coefficient of variation for data within each section.

Conclusion

• Considering these issues and evaluating the data will be critical to help manage deep, clear-water lakes of the world and our water resources for the future.

• Although there is no current standard for light transmissivity in Lake Tahoe, it will be important to establish a monitoring program that would collect the data needed to more fully evaluate existing conditions, its variability, and the relationships to other metrics, like turbidity.

Thanks very much!

• Desert Research Institute• Tahoe Baikal Institute

Questions???