A long-term water quality and meteorological data set (2014 – 2021) of a eutrophic prairie lake: Buffalo Pound Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada

Lakes can undergo rapid changes that are not captured during traditional, discrete sampling campaigns. Sensor-based data provided opportunities to understand these rapid changes in lakes. Here, we present 8 years of sensor-based monitoring data from the open water season in a shallow, polymictic reservoir in southern Saskatchewan, which serves as an important drinking water supply. A monitoring buoy was moored at a single location, providing sensor data, including water temperature, photosynthetically available radiation (PAR), pH, dissolved oxygen, specific conductivity, turbidity, phycocyanin and chlorophyll at 2 depths (0.8 and 2.8 m below surface), and temperature throughout the water column, at 10-minute intervals timeframe. The buoy also had a weather station, recording air temperature, barometric pressure, PAR, rain, relative humidity, wind direction and wind speed. Data were reviewed and graded for data quality. This long-term dataset can be used to understand thermal variation and varied, often rapid, changes that polymictic lakes undergo, particularly through seasonal changes and development of cyanobacterial blooms.