LSU Paths to PhD: Uncovering What Lake Sediments Reveal About Louisiana’s Environmental Future

Lee Potter grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, rowing on the Potomac and Chester Rivers, hiking the Appalachians, and developing an early intuition that water and landscape are inseparable. 

This May, Potter's finishing his PhD in Oceanography & Coastal Sciences at LSU, where he's spent three years exploring the fate and transport of phosphorus in Lake Pontchartrain to better understand the future of harmful algal blooms in estuaries.

We asked him to share a bit about his doctoral research and experience at LSU.  

What initially drew you to this research topic?

The Chesapeake Bay was basically my backyard growing up. I rowed on the Potomac and the Chester River in high school and college, spent a lot of time outdoors in the Appalachian Mountains, and watched the Bay struggle with poor water quality throughout my college years without really understanding the mechanics behind it.

By the time I finished my master's at LSU, I'd heard a lot about river diversions and wanted to explore the connection between these restoration and management systems, and the long-term impact they would have on the communities that depend on them.

What's your favorite fun fact about your research?

Sediments have a memory. The phosphorus that farms and cities flushed into waterways decades ago is still sitting in the mud at the bottom of places like Lake Pontchartrain, slowly leaking back out. We call it "legacy phosphorus," and it means that even if we cleaned up every pollution source today, the ecosystem wouldn't recover overnight.

What were the biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?

Some of the biggest challenges revolved around managing such a large system. I kind of got lost in the weeds earlier on trying to do everything and eventually had to start diving into the questions I was asking rather than the exploration I kept wanting to do.

It helped to have a great team in the Wetland and Aquatic Biogeochemistry lab; my group really came through on the big projects and often worked with me nights and weekends to manage the substantial dataset. Eventually, we even decided to duplicate the project on Lake Maurepas to better understand the upcoming reconnection of the Maurepas Swamp.

What was most surprising?

I think what surprised me most was in my annual water sampling, where I went into the tributaries of Lake Pontchartrain and found that most of the rivers go hypoxic (very low oxygen) in the summer.

This can lead to elevated phosphorus release from the sediments and is often not a common feature of rivers. They are highly dynamic systems, and often that leads to pretty consistent oxygen levels. This would be an area of research I would like to dive deeper into if I had more time.

What are your plans after graduation?

Heading to Utah State for a postdoc, which is a total landscape change and honestly feels like the perfect place to continue my academic training. When I left California, I swore I would make it back out west, a place I always wanted to end up. And while I don’t think I’ll be there long-term, I am excited to apply my research experience to a system I know so well in Utah. In the long term, I would like to remain in academia and pursue a faculty position, likely on the East Coast.

What will you take away from LSU?

My experience at LSU was one I can honestly say was not on my life bingo card. But through my time here, the warmth of the Louisiana community has really made this place a home to me.

I will always be grateful for being taken in and given a chance here and for all of the opportunities the university and my faculty advisors presented me with. Southern Louisiana is a special place with a unique culture, and the LSU experience is definitely one I recommend to anyone I come across.