A laboratory experiment for studying the effects of sediment dredging on nitrogen release from lake sediments was carried out through one-year incubation of undredged (control) and dredged cores. We found that dredging the upper 30cm layer of the sediment can efficiently reduce organic matter content in the sediment and the interstitial NH₄⁺ concentration. The NH₄⁺ fluxes of the dredged and undredged cores ranged from 5.3 to 18.6mg/(m²·d) and -9.4 to 67.5mg/(m²·d), respectively. The fluxes of the dredged cores were generally lower than those of the undredged(control) cores, with significant(P<0.05)differences in the fluxes of the dredged and undredged cores occurring between May and December of 2006. The NH₄⁺ in the dredged cores had a lower release potential than that in the control cores. Our results suggested that dredging may be a useful approach for decreasing internal nitrogen loading in Lake Taihu once the external loading was first effectively controlled.