A laboratory experiment was carried out to study the effects of sediment dredging on phosphorus (P) release from lake sediments using incubation of undredged (control) and dredged cores through a year. We found that dredging the upper 30cm layer of the sediment can efficiently reduce the interstitial PO₄³P concentration and different P forms in the sediment. The P fluxes of the undredged and dredged cores ranged from-237.3 to 3047.6ng/(m²·d) and-143.8 to 14.4ng/(m²·d), respectively. The fluxes of the dredged cores were generally lower than those of the undredged (control) cores, with significan P<0.05 Derences between the fluxes of the dredged and undredged cores occurring between March and October of 2006. The sediment P in the dredged cores had a lower release potential than those in the control cores. Our results suggested that dredging may be a useful approach for decreasing internal P loading in Lake Taihu once the external P loading is effectively controlled in advance.