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Large increases in carbon burial in northern lakes during the Anthropocene

Author

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  • Adam J. Heathcote

    (Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Université du Québec à Montréal
    St Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota)

  • N. John Anderson

    (Loughborough University)

  • Yves T. Prairie

    (Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Université du Québec à Montréal)

  • Daniel R. Engstrom

    (St Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota)

  • Paul A. del Giorgio

    (Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Université du Québec à Montréal)

Abstract

Northern forests are important ecosystems for carbon (C) cycling and lakes within them process and bury large amounts of organic-C. Current burial estimates are poorly constrained and may discount other shifts in organic-C burial driven by global change. Here we analyse a suite of northern lakes to determine trends in organic-C burial throughout the Anthropocene. We found burial rates increased significantly over the last century and are up to five times greater than previous estimates. Despite a correlation with temperature, warming alone did not explain the increase in burial, suggesting the importance of other drivers including atmospherically deposited reactive nitrogen. Upscaling mean lake burial rates for each time period to global northern forests yields up to 4.5 Pg C accumulated in the last 100 years—20% of the total burial over the Holocene. Our results indicate that lakes will become increasingly important for C burial under future global change scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam J. Heathcote & N. John Anderson & Yves T. Prairie & Daniel R. Engstrom & Paul A. del Giorgio, 2015. "Large increases in carbon burial in northern lakes during the Anthropocene," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10016
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10016
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    Cited by:

    1. Joan P. Casas-Ruiz & Pascal Bodmer & Kelly Ann Bona & David Butman & Mathilde Couturier & Erik J. S. Emilson & Kerri Finlay & Hélène Genet & Daniel Hayes & Jan Karlsson & David Paré & Changhui Peng & , 2023. "Integrating terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to constrain estimates of land-atmosphere carbon exchange," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Leonardo Amora-Nogueira & Christian J. Sanders & Alex Enrich-Prast & Luciana Silva Monteiro Sanders & Rodrigo Coutinho Abuchacra & Patricia F. Moreira-Turcq & Renato Campello Cordeiro & Vincent Gauci , 2022. "Tropical forests as drivers of lake carbon burial," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    3. Belle Simon & Poska Anneli & Hossann Christian & Tõnno Ilmar, 2017. "14,000 years of climate-induced changes in carbon resources sustaining benthic consumers in a small boreal lake (Lake Tollari, Estonia)," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 205-219, November.

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