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Lake Ecology

Skaneateles Lake has a rich blue-green color. This is because the lake waters are quite clear, which allows blue-green wavelengths of light to penetrate deep into the lake.

Skaneateles Lake has very low biological productivity and, in fact, is the most oligotrophic of the Finger Lakes. One aspect of an oligotrophic water body is low levels of algae and other forms of plant life. Other characteristics of Skaneateles Lake are typical of oligotrophic water bodies, including increased dissolved oxygen concentrations with depth, and high transparency levels. The ability of blue and green wavelengths to penetrate into the lake is the result of the very low concentrations of phytoplankton and humic substances which would otherwise absorb light in the blue wavelength range.

Surface waters of deep water bodies such as Skaneateles stratify over the summer as the air temperature increases and solar radiation penetrates the water. The warmer, upper-layer is called the epilimnion, the bottom, colder water is referred to as the hypolimnion. This epilimnion is separated from the hypolimnion by the metalimnion, the zone where the water temperature changes rapidly over a very short distance. When the cooler weather of the fall and winter drop the temperature of the epiliminion to the same temperature as the hypolimnion, the lake becomes isothermal - same temperature. Once isothermal, the water from the different layers mix, otherwise known as turning over.