Abstract
The burial of organic carbon in lake sediments plays an important role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Clarifying the current status of carbon burial in the lakes of Central Asia is of great significance for the application of carbon balance assessments. With the analysis of the total organic carbon and nitrogen and the carbon isotope and organic carbon burial rate in the core sediment of the North Aral Sea, the status and influencing factors of organic carbon burial over the past 70 years can be revealed. The results showed that the main source of organic carbon was predominantly from lacustrine aquatic plants. However, the contribution of terrigenous organic carbon increased from the 1950s to the 1960s. The burial rate of organic carbon in North Aral Sea sediments was consistent with the overall change in the regional temperature. The burial rate of organic carbon showed an upward trend as a whole with an average of 28.78 g·m−2·a−1. Since 2010, the burial rate of organic carbon has stood at the highest level in nearly 70 years, with an average of 55.66 g·m−2·a−1. The protection of a lake by human beings can not only significantly improve the lake’s aquatic ecosystem but also help to increase the burial rate of the lake’s organic carbon.
Highlights
In the context of global warming, the carbon cycle has gradually become the focus of global change research [1]
Organic carbon burial in lake sediments is a series of biochemical processes that are closely related to factors, such as climate change, organic carbon sources, lake characteristics, and human activities [12]
The content of total nitrogen (TN) was between 0.01% and 0.20%, with an average content of 0.12%, and its change trend was more consistent with the change of the total organic carbon (TOC)
Summary
In the context of global warming, the carbon cycle has gradually become the focus of global change research [1]. The central Asian arid zone is the main body of the world’s largest non-zonal arid zone [6], and the inland lakes in central Asia are widely distributed, with changes in carbon burial playing an important role in the regional and global carbon cycle and carbon balance. As an important environmental proxy indicator, organic carbon in lakes in the arid area of Central Asia has been widely used in the research of lake environmental change reconstruction [7,8], the identification of hydrological and environmental anomalies [9,10], and the reconstruction of watershed agricultural development [11]. Organic carbon burial in lake sediments is a series of biochemical processes that are closely related to factors, such as climate change, organic carbon sources, lake characteristics, and human activities [12]
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