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Abstract
Burial in sediments removes organic carbon (OC) from the short-term biosphere-atmosphere carbon (C) cycle, and therefore prevents greenhouse gas production in natural systems. Although OC burial in lakes and reservoirs is faster than in the ocean, the magnitude of inland water OC burial is not well constrained. Here we generate the first global-scale and regionally resolved estimate of modern OC burial in lakes and reservoirs, deriving from a comprehensive compilation of literature data. We coupled statistical models to inland water area inventories to estimate a yearly OC burial of 0.15 (range, 0.06–0.25) Pg C, of which ~40% is stored in reservoirs. Relatively higher OC burial rates are predicted for warm and dry regions. While we report lower burial than previously estimated, lake and reservoir OC burial corresponded to ~20% of their C emissions, making them an important C sink that is likely to increase with eutrophication and river damming.
Highlights
Burial in sediments removes organic carbon (OC) from the short-term biosphere-atmosphere carbon (C) cycle, and prevents greenhouse gas production in natural systems
We performed upscaling using multiple scenarios consisting of different predictive equations from OC burial models, and different inventories of inland water area, thereby providing a range of estimates (0.06–0.25 Pg C per year) that is intended to reflect the uncertainty caused by data scarcity
Whole-system OC burial rates varied from 0.2 to 17,392 g C m−2 yr−1 with higher values in reservoirs
Summary
Burial in sediments removes organic carbon (OC) from the short-term biosphere-atmosphere carbon (C) cycle, and prevents greenhouse gas production in natural systems. We performed upscaling using multiple scenarios consisting of different predictive equations from OC burial models, and different inventories of inland water area, thereby providing a range of estimates (0.06–0.25 Pg C per year) that is intended to reflect the uncertainty caused by data scarcity.
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