Atmospheric carbon burial in modern lake basins and its significance for the global carbon budget

Einsele, Gerhard; Yan, Jianping; Hinderer, Matthias

doi:10.1016/s0921-8181(01)00105-9

Cited by 172 publications

(122 citation statements)

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“…Here we show that the mineralization of OC in lake sediment is strongly positively related to temperature, implying that increased water temperature leads to more mineralization and less burial of OC. For lakes in the boreal zone, assuming that OC delivery to the sediments will be similar to present-day conditions, we estimate that temperature increases according to latest scenarios presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 7 result in a 4-27 % (0.9-6.4 Tg C yr -1 ) decrease in annual OC burial, constituting a positive feedback of aquatic carbon release on climate.Nature 466, 478-481 (22 July 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09186 2 The sequestration of OC in the sediments of inland waters, both natural and man made 8,9,3,10,11 , is comparable to or even higher than in marine sediments 4 and soils 12,13,14,15 . Inland waters do not only bury OC, but are also active sites for the mineralization of considerable amounts of OC, originating from internal production or from the terrestrial environment 4,5,16 .…”

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“…Nature 466, 478-481 (22 July 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09186 2 The sequestration of OC in the sediments of inland waters, both natural and man made 8,9,3,10,11 , is comparable to or even higher than in marine sediments 4 and soils 12,13,14,15 . Inland waters do not only bury OC, but are also active sites for the mineralization of considerable amounts of OC, originating from internal production or from the terrestrial environment 4,5,16 .…”

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Temperature-controlled organic carbon mineralization in lake sediments

Gudasz

Bastviken

Steger

et al. 2010

Nature

496

370

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onto the sediments, a certain proportion will be mineralized, and the remainder will be buried over geological timescales. We investigated to what extent a warmer climate will affect OC mineralization and burial in lake sediments. Here we show that the mineralization of OC in lake sediment is strongly positively related to temperature, implying that increased water temperature leads to more mineralization and less burial of OC. For lakes in the boreal zone, assuming that OC delivery to the sediments will be similar to present-day conditions, we estimate that temperature increases according to latest scenarios presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 7 result in a 4-27 % (0.9-6.4 Tg C yr -1 ) decrease in annual OC burial, constituting a positive feedback of aquatic carbon release on climate.Nature 466, 478-481 (22 July 2010) doi:10.1038/nature09186 2 The sequestration of OC in the sediments of inland waters, both natural and man made 8,9,3,10,11 , is comparable to or even higher than in marine sediments 4 and soils 12,13,14,15 . Inland waters do not only bury OC, but are also active sites for the mineralization of considerable amounts of OC, originating from internal production or from the terrestrial environment 4,5,16 . The OC that reaches the lake sediment surface will partly be mineralized to CO 2 or CH 4 by heterotrophic microorganisms, and partly be buried in the sediments. The proportion of the OC buried (i.e., the ratio of OC burial per OC deposition onto the sediment surface) is termed the OC burial efficiency, while the fraction of the sediment OC that is lost through microbial processing is termed OC mineralization. As a consequence, the amount of OC that is eventually buried is a direct function of the burial efficiency 17 . The OC burial efficiency in lake sediments is related to oxygen exposure, but the effect of temperature on OC mineralization and burial remains unclear 17 . Relationships between lake sediment mineralization and temperature proposed so far are subject to confounding factors such as lake depth, OC quality, and lake trophic state 18,19 . In view of anthropogenic global warming and the substantial amount of OC buried in inland water sediments, it is critical to elucidate how temperature affects burial efficiency, to allow assessment of the future role of lakes as carbon sinks.The boreal region contains roughly 30% of the global lakes 20,21 and is rich in OC 22 . Accordingly, boreal lake sediments contain 15% of the total carbon pool of the biome 22 . The Canadian boreal forest region alone could account for more than 10% of the global lake burial 5 . Northern latitudes, including the boreal zone, are expected to experience particularly severe warming 7,23 , suggesting that temperature-dependence of sediment OC burial may be of particular importance at these latitudes.We assessed the relationship between sediment OC mineralization and temperature in a crosssystem survey of boreal lakes in central Sweden, and by compilation of published data from widely different...

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confidence: 99%

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Temperature-controlled organic carbon mineralization in lake sediments

Gudasz

Bastviken

Steger

et al. 2010

Nature

496

370

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“…Freshwaters have recently gained recognition as important processors of carbon at the global scale (Alin and Johnson 2007;Cole et al 2007;Dean and Gorham 1998;Einsele et al 2001). Their role in terms of carbon storage, flux and transport has been elucidated more clearly, indicating that freshwaters currently not only release a globally significant amount of carbon from the terrestrial catchment to the atmosphere, but also store a large amount of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon in sediments (Alin and Johnson 2007;Cole et al 2007;Dean and Gorham 1998;Einsele et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their role in terms of carbon storage, flux and transport has been elucidated more clearly, indicating that freshwaters currently not only release a globally significant amount of carbon from the terrestrial catchment to the atmosphere, but also store a large amount of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon in sediments (Alin and Johnson 2007;Cole et al 2007;Dean and Gorham 1998;Einsele et al 2001). The importance of freshwaters for both carbon storage and release makes studies aimed at understanding the effect of warming on the net carbon balance of lakes and ponds crucial for predicting future global carbon cycling (Falkowski et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental warming increases CO2 saturation in a shallow prairie pond

Flanagan¹,

McCauley

2010

Aquat Ecol

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There is an urgent need to understand the effect of climate warming on the carbon dynamics of lakes and ponds in order to assess contributions to global carbon budgets. Currently, we are unable to predict how the exchange of carbon gases (i.e. CO 2 ) across the air-water boundary and organic carbon storage in the sediments will be altered with realistic warming scenarios downscaled from climatic models. Given the prevalence of shallow systems and tight atmospheric coupling, we conducted a mesocosm experiment to test the impacts of warming on CO 2 saturation in a shallow prairie pond. We outline and test three possible scenarios for the effect of warming on the CO 2 saturation of ponds, resulting in either an increase, decrease or no net effect for CO 2 saturation. We show that with approximately a two-degree (8C) increase in average water temperature, the pCO 2 of the warmed mesocosms was nine times greater than the ambient temperature mesocosms by the end of the 5-week experiment. Changes in water colour (a measure of dissolved organic carbon) in warmed systems indicate that decomposition of organic matter in the sediments and water column was the main contributor to the increase in pCO 2 in the warmed mesocosms. Our results show that with warming, the release of CO 2 from shallow ponds to the atmosphere will increase and carbon storage in the sediments will decrease, altering the current functioning of shallow prairie ponds and influencing the contribution of ponds to the global carbon cycle.

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“…However, in some area of the world where lakes occupy 10e20% of the land surface area, such as Wuhan City, China, lake carbon budget is potentially a very important component of the whole area carbon budget. Studies on carbon burial in lake sediments have shown that lakes are disproportionately important carbon sinks (Dean and Gorham, 1998;Einsele et al, 2001;Mulholland and Elwood, 1982;Stallard, 1998), with the sedimentation mass of organic carbon in lakes about half that of oceans, which cover 71% of the earth's surface (Dean and Gorham, 1998). Compared to large lakes, small lakes are proportionally more important for carbon burial (Kortelainen et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%