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

Exploring Sediment History in Central New York Lakes

Tuesday, September 13, 2022, By Renée Gearhart Levy
Share
civil and environmental engineeringCollege of Arts and SciencesCollege of Engineering and Computer Scienceearth and environmental sciencesfaculty researchgraduate studentsgrantlake water research

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
  • Dutkowsky Weighs In on Upcoming Interest Rates
    Monday, January 30, 2023, By Vanessa Marquette
  • 4 Questions With Dean of Students Sheriah N. Dixon G’12
    Monday, January 30, 2023, By Shannon Andre
  • Parking and Transportation Services Announces Changes to Shuttle Offerings
    Monday, January 30, 2023, By Jennifer DeMarchi
  • ChatGPT in the Classroom Presents Both Challenges and Opportunities
    Monday, January 30, 2023, By Christopher Munoz
  • School of Architecture Announces Spring 2023 Visiting Critics
    Friday, January 27, 2023, By Julie Sharkey

More In STEM

Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center Receives Multi-Million Dollar Environmental Protection Agency Grant to Support Underserved Communities

The Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center (SU-EFC) was selected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to serve as a regional Environmental Finance Center (EFC) to help communities access federal infrastructure funds and continue supporting environmental and financial challenges in…

Getting to the ‘Point’: Powerful Computing Helps Identify Potential New Treatments for Coronaviruses

Coronaviruses, such as the one that causes COVID-19, have numerous protruding spikes salting their surfaces. When a coronavirus raises one of these spike proteins—like opening a finger to full length—it becomes capable of invading a human cell. The pointed spike…

Researchers Reject 30-Year-Old Paradigm: Emergence of Forests Did Not Reduce CO2 in Atmosphere

It’s hard to imagine our planet without trees. From providing wildlife habitat to reducing erosion and absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, trees play an important role in maintaining a livable environment. But trees haven’t been around forever. Over…

Biology Professor Investigates Polar Bear Paw Design Principles

Using the solutions observed in nature to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation is at the heart of research by BioInspired Syracuse. Austin Garner, assistant professor of biology and member of BioInspired, specializes in functional morphology—studying the form…

Nature-Inspired Designs Could Offer Solutions for Global Challenges

Bioinspired research draws from the natural world to develop solutions for global challenges. But it can be difficult to turn these research ideas into actual materials and methods that can be applied to real world problems in areas like construction,…

Subscribe to SU Today

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

Connect With Us

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

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.