title: Large increases in carbon burial in northern lakes during the Anthropocene.
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.
authors.affiliation: Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3P8.|St Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, 16910 152nd Street North, Marine on St Croix, Minnesota 55047, USA.
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Heathcote
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK.
authors.forename: N John
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3P8.
authors.forename: Yves T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Prairie
authors.affiliation: St Croix Watershed Research Station, Science Museum of Minnesota, 16910 152nd Street North, Marine on St Croix, Minnesota 55047, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Engstrom
authors.affiliation: Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case postale 8888, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3P8.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: del Giorgio