SENECA LAKE, AN IDEAL NATURAL LABORATORY FOR RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

Seneca Lake, in central New York State, is an ideal natural laboratory for research and education. The lake, at 15.5 cubic kilometers, is the largest (by volume) of the eleven Finger Lakes in western and central New York. Like its neighbors, Seneca Lake is a critical source of Class AA drinking water to the surrounding communities and is a focus for the regional, tourism-based economy. Yet, all of the Finger Lakes are listed by the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation as threatened, stressed or impaired for a variety of pollutants.

The watershed is ideal for research and education because the 17 major tributaries that enter the lake reveal differences in basin areas, land use, bedrock geologies, physiographies, and other characteristics that influence each tributary's hydrogeochemistry. The William Scandling, our 65-ft research vessel, is part of the infrastructure required to conduct research and education on the lake. More importantly, the basin mimics many of the non point source pollutants that impact the Laurentian Great Lakes, yet Seneca Lake is small enough to easily sample various sites across the lake or the major tributaries that flow into the lake in a day and allow for numerous research opportunities like comparisons between geochemical box models and actual field data.

My talk will describe examples that reveal these differences including the impact of zebra and quagga mussels on the limnology of the lake, the impact of nutrient loading by agricultural and human sources on the trophic status of the lake, the impact of the bedrock geology on the tributary and lake hydrogeochemistry, and other watershed/lake interactions. Each project represents a series of classroom exercises, independent study and honors research projects, undergraduate student summer research projects, and ultimately my professional outreach, education and research pursuits. Finally, these pursuits have recently expanded to the neighboring eleven Finger Lakes through the development of the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.