Groundwater and the phosphorus budget of Oneida Lake

Sol Lisboa, Rebecca Schneider, Todd Walter, Lars Rudstam

Groundwater inputs of phosphorus (P) is a largely ignored component of the P budget in lakes. The groundwater connection has been one of Schneider’s interests for some time and Lisboa studied this aspect of the P budget in Oneida Lake for her PhD. P concentration in groundwater can be high and is highly variable. In 2020, Lisboa measured groundwater P input at many stations around the lake to better understand this variability. Groundwater influx of TP was large in these years and may contribute as much as 40% of the summer P influx to the lake (published this year, Lisboa et al. 2025).