Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Exploring Sediment History in Central New York Lakes

Tuesday, September 13, 2022, By Renée Gearhart Levy
Share
College of Arts and SciencesCollege of Engineering and Computer ScienceDepartment of Earth and Environmental SciencesGraduate SchoolgrantResearch and Creative

Skaneateles Lake in Upstate New York is one of the cleanest, clearest freshwater lakes in the country, the source of drinking water for the City of Syracuse and a hub for recreation. Since 2017, however, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been observed in the lake each summer, potentially threatening the area’s chief water supply.

Christopher Scholz headshot

Christopher Scholz

HABs occur when colonies of cyanobacteria grow out of control. “They can be very toxic,” says Christopher Scholz, professor of Earth and environmental sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. “If there’s a HAB in a freshwater lake, you certainly don’t want to be drinking that water and you don’t want to be bathing in it or have your dog swimming in it.”

Scholz’s research focuses on paleolimnology—reconstructing the past environments of inland waters through their geologic record—and he has studied climate change using sedimentary analysis of lake basins ranging from Lakes Malawi and Taganyika in the East African Rift Valley to Lake Baikal in Siberia to freshwater lakes in Upstate New York. He’s now using similar techniques to study environmental changes in Skaneateles Lake and nearby Oneida Lake over the last 350 years, a starting point for research that may eventually provide a historical record of environmental conditions leading to HABs on the lakes.

Scholz has received $34,000 from the New York State Water Resources Institute, a program based out of Cornell University, to collect sediment cores from the two lakes to determine spatial patterns of sedimentation and take measurements of nutrients including phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen to see how those have varied over time.

Researchers collect sediment cores

Researchers from the Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Civil and Environmental Engineering collect sediment cores from Skaneateles Lake in October 2021.

“The layers of sediment at the bottom of a lake basin are essentially a tape recorder of environmental change over time,” Scholz says. “Within this relatively small project, we’re trying to get a sense of how the loading of nutrients into the lakes have changed just over the last 300-350 years, from precolonial times to the present.”

Skaneateles Lake is an oligotrophic lake, meaning it contains low nutrient content leading to clear water due to limited algae growth. Scholz says the recent HABs are unusual. “We know essentially nothing about past, ancient occurrences of HABs in the lake,” he says.

Oneida Lake, by contrast, is a eutrophic lake. “Parts of it turn green every summer on account of high biological productivity, and there’s a longer history of HABs occurring,” he says.

Comparing sediment cores from the two lakes may provide answers to environmental conditions that lead to HABs.

Scholz is collaborating on the project with Syracuse University colleagues Charles T. Driscoll, University Professor of Environmental Systems and Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Melissa Chipman, assistant professor of arctic paleoecology and paleoclimate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

two people working in a laboratory to examine water sediments

Staff technician Jacqueline Corbett and graduate student Laura Streib examine a sediment core from Oneida Lake.

In partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Skaneateles Lake Association and the Oneida Lake Association, the team is collecting core samples from both lakes to quantitatively measure how the sediment in each lake changed in accumulation and composition over time, as well as to establish patterns of sediment accumulation in different locations in the lakes.

“Sediment doesn’t accumulate evenly all around the bottom of a lake,” Scholz says. “So, identifying the key sites to evaluate these kinds of changes is very important and will inform future studies.”

Ultimately, understanding past history of environmental change leading to HABs may help scientists protect water quality in the future. “We can’t take these remarkable natural resources for granted,” Scholz says. “We live in a changing world and water conditions are definitely evolving.”

  • Author

Renée Gearhart Levy

  • Recent
  • Arts and Sciences Hosts Inaugural Scholarship and Research Gala
    Friday, May 9, 2025, By Sean Grogan
  • Chancellor Kent Syverud Honored as Distinguished Citizen of the Year at 57th Annual ScoutPower Event
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By News Staff
  • New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • From Policy to Practice: How AI is Shaping the Future of Education
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Christopher Munoz
  • Kohn, Wiklund, Wilmoth Named Distinguished Professors
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In STEM

Chloe Britton Naime Committed to Advocating for Improved Outcomes for Neurodivergent Individuals

Chloe Britton Naime ’25 is about to complete a challenging and rare dual major program in both mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and neuroscience from the College of Arts and Sciences. Even more impressive? Britton…

Graduating Research Quartet Synthesizes Long-Lasting Friendships Through Chemistry

When Jesse Buck ’25, Isabella Chavez Miranda ’25, Lucy Olcott ’25 and Morgan Opp ’25 started as student researchers in medicinal chemist Robert Doyle’s lab, they hoped to hone their research skills. It quickly became evident this would be unlike…

Biologist Reveals New Insights Into Fish’s Unique Attachment Mechanism

On a wave-battered rock in the Northern Pacific Ocean, a fish called the sculpin grips the surface firmly to maintain stability in its harsh environment. Unlike sea urchins, which use their glue-secreting tube feet to adhere to their surroundings, sculpins…

Distinguished ECS Professor Pramod K. Varshney Establishes Endowed Faculty Fellowship

Distinguished Professor Pramod K. Varshney has exemplified Orange excellence since joining the University as a 23-year-old faculty member. A world-renowned researcher and educator, he’s been recognized for his seminal contributions to information fusion and related fields, introducing new, innovative courses…

Earth Day Spotlight: The Science Behind Heat Pumps (Video)

Peter Wirth has a two-fold strategy when it comes to renovating his home. The Brooklyn, New York, native has called Central New York home for more than 40 years. Nestled on a quiet cul-de-sac in Fayetteville, New York, the 1960s-era…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.