The Walker River Basin project is a multi-agency federally-funded project that seeks to sustain the environmental health of Walker Lake, while at the same time maintaining the economic health of the basin. We are part of a team of researchers from the University of Nevada and the Desert Research Institute that is investigating the impacts of alternative land uses and water management scenarios on the ecological health of the riparian corridor, and evaluating the likely soil and vegetation responses to changes in water application and consumptive use, water table depth, and soil salinity.

In collaboration with Otis Bay Ecological Consulting and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service we are mapping riparian vegetation structure and collecting field data on plant community composition, canopy structure, and soils within the riparian corridor. These data are being analyzed to derive species-environment relationships and to determine potential vegetation types that can be used to guide restoration. We are also compiling historical documents, including the General Land Office survey notes, plat maps, and historic aerial photographs, to reconstruct pre-Euro-American settlement vegetation conditions and to examine land use/land cover change over the past 140 years.

Spatial modeling is being used to “scale up” limited field investigations and experimental studies of ecosystem processes, such as primary productivity, evapotranspiration, salinization, and wind and water erosion. This work makes use of high resolution satellite imagery and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) measurements of canopy cover and ground surface elevation in order to provide landscape-level estimates.

Simulation models are being developed to reconstruct historic vegetation community composition in areas that have been altered by water development, agriculture, and river engineering, as well as to forecast likely responses of vegetation and soils to alternative land use practices and water management scenarios.

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