Phosphorus (P) cycling in lake is the migration and transformation of P between sediment, water and organisms. Special attention has been paid to P migrate and transformation between sediment and water, the typical process of P cycling in eutrophic lakes. Through the summary of studies at home and abroad, this paper reviews the fraction and bio-availability of P in water and sediment, the mechanisms and research methods of P migration and transformation across the sediment-water interface, and the effecting factors of P migrate, such as sediment properties, environmental factors and biological factors. In view of the fact that most of current research focuses on single-factor simulation experiments, conducting in-situ multi-factor experiments to explore the main mechanisms of different lakes in the future. Moreover, the main research methods of experiment in this field were summarized and compared. Different methods should be combined together to examine the cycling of P. Such as using the field observation to identify the migration of P, the simulation experiment to analyze main mechanisms, and the model to quantitative the mass balance of P. Finally, demands and challenges about P migrate and transformation in future research are proposed.