Ramon C. Naranjo

Recent research activities involve characterization of hyporheic flow and nutrients beneath barrier beaches and streams in the shore zone of Lake Tahoe, and using multi-depth observations of temperature in unlined agricultural canal sediments to quantify seepage losses.  Near-shore water quality and lake clarity is of interest due to nutrient enrichment leading to algal blooms and ongoing efforts to quantify groundwater contributions to nutrient loads.  Understanding the role of groundwater surface-water interactions as it relates to nutrient retention and cycling is an important consideration in this research.  He has designed and patented new instrumentation for continuous monitoring of subsurface temperatures to evaluate spatial and temporal variability in seepage rates that allows further development of new heat as tracer model calibration and uncertainty techniques.  He is actively testing new modeling software being developed to enable the coupled heat-flow and reactive transport processes. He serves as a member of the Tahoe Science Advisory Council.