Suspended-Sediment Budgets for Four Drainage Basins Tributary to Lake Tahoe,California and Nevada, 1984-87

摘要

Effective management of lands surrounding Lake Tahoe requires an understanding ofprocesses controlling sediment delivery to the lake from tributary streams. Erosional processes were monitored along four Lake Tahoe tributary basins during 1984-87, and sediment budgets were formulated to identify processes that supply sediment to tributary streams. Data collection was adequate to describe the processes most important in the mobilization, transport, and storage of sediment in three of the four study basins. Differences in the processes and rates of channel erosion and in the sources of sediment within channel systems seem to be controlled by differences in precipitation, geology, basin physiography, and, to an unknown degree, land use. Because alluvial channels are the dominant source of mobilized sediment in the study basin, land-use changes virtually anywhere in a basin could affect sediment yields in that basin.