Raystown Lake, in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania is important to the economy of the region, drawing in nearly two million visitors each year. To evaluate the health and trophic status of the reservoir, students and faculty from Juniata College have collected data in early July intermittently since 1998. Eleven years of data have been collected from seven sites along the reservoir, including dissolved oxygen concentrations, temperature, and Secchi disk depths, and four years of data for epilimnetic total phosphorus concentration. These data were examined to evaluate changes in the health of the reservoir over time. Overall, there was an increase in average temperatures in the epilimnion from 1998 to now. Increasing temperatures over time can lead to algal blooms and low oxygen zones, resulting in fish kills. Dissolved oxygen values, total phosphorous concentrations, and Secchi depth readings varied over time but did not show a distinct trend. Monitoring these trends is essential to maintaining the health of the lake as well as the economy in the area.

Spatial and temporal variation in water chemistry over two decades in a central Pennsylvania reservoir

ACS Spring 2022

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