Boreal Lake Sediments as Sources and Sinks of Carbon

Inland waters process large amounts of organic carbon, contributing to CO2 and CH4 emissions, as well as storing organic carbon (OC) over geological timescales. Recently, it has been shown that the magnitude of these processes is of global significance. It is therefore important to understand what regulates OC cycling in inland waters and how is that affected by climate change. This thesis investigates the constraints on microbial processing of sediment OC, as a key factor of the carbon cycling in boreal lakes. Sediment bacterial metabolism was primarily controlled by temperature but also regulated by OC quality/origin. Temperature sensitivity of sediment OC mineralization was similar in contrasting lakes and over long-term. Allochthonous OC had a strong constraining effect on sediment bacterial metabolism and biomass, with increasingly allochthonous sediments supporting decreasing bacterial metabolism and biomass. The bacterial biomass followed the same pattern as bacterial activity and was largely regulated by similar factors. The rapid turnover of bacterial biomass as well as the positive correlation between sediment mineralization and bacterial biomass suggest a limited effect of bacterial grazing. Regardless of the OC source, the sediment microbial community was more similar within season than within lakes. A comparison of data from numerous soils as well as sediments on the temperature response of OC mineralization showed higher temperature sensitivity of the sediment mineralization. Furthermore, the low rates of areal OC mineralization in sediments compared to soils suggest that lakes sediments are hotspots of OC sequestration. Increased sediment mineralization due to increase in temperature in epilimnetic sediments can significantly reduce OC burial in boreal lakes. An increase of temperature, as predicted for Northern latitudes, under different climate warming scenarios by the end of the twenty-first century, resulted in 4–27% decrease in lake sediment OC burial for the entire boreal zone

Boreal Lake Sediments as Sources and Sinks of Carbon

Inland waters process large amounts of organic carbon, contributing to CO2 and CH4 emissions, as well as storing organic carbon (OC) over geological timescales. Recently, it has been shown that the magnitude of these processes is of global significance. It is therefore important to understand what regulates OC cycling in inland waters and how is that affected by climate change. This thesis investigates the constraints on microbial processing of sediment OC, as a key factor of the carbon cycling in boreal lakes. Sediment bacterial metabolism was primarily controlled by temperature but also regulated by OC quality/origin. Temperature sensitivity of sediment OC mineralization was similar in contrasting lakes and over long-term. Allochthonous OC had a strong constraining effect on sediment bacterial metabolism and biomass, with increasingly allochthonous sediments supporting decreasing bacterial metabolism and biomass. The bacterial biomass followed the same pattern as bacterial activity and was largely regulated by similar factors. The rapid turnover of bacterial biomass as well as the positive correlation between sediment mineralization and bacterial biomass suggest a limited effect of bacterial grazing. Regardless of the OC source, the sediment microbial community was more similar within season than within lakes. A comparison of data from numerous soils as well as sediments on the temperature response of OC mineralization showed higher temperature sensitivity of the sediment mineralization. Furthermore, the low rates of areal OC mineralization in sediments compared to soils suggest that lakes sediments are hotspots of OC sequestration. Increased sediment mineralization due to increase in temperature in epilimnetic sediments can significantly reduce OC burial in boreal lakes. An increase of temperature, as predicted for Northern latitudes, under different climate warming scenarios by the end of the twenty-first century, resulted in 4–27% decrease in lake sediment OC burial for the entire boreal zone

When does temperature matter for ecosystem respiration?

The temperature response of ecosystem processes is key to understand and predict impacts of climate change. This is especially true for respiration, given its high temperature sensitivity and major role in the global carbon cycle. However, similar intrinsic temperature sensitivity for respiration does not mean comparable temperature effects across ecosystems and biomes because non-temperature factors can be more important. Here we analyzed soil and sediment respiration data and found that in temperature ranges corresponding to high latitude mean temperatures, absolute respiration rates are more sensitive to non-temperature factors than to projected direct temperature effects. However, at higher temperatures (&amp;gt;20 degrees C) the direct effect of temperature mediated by temperature sensitivity will likely be more important over changes in non-temperature factors in shaping how respiration change over time. This supports past suggestions that the relatively small projected temperature increase at low (tropical) latitudes may have a large direct impact on absolute respiration. In contrast, absolute respiration rates at high (boreal/arctic) latitudes will likely be more sensitive on the development of the non-temperature factors than on the direct effects of the large projected temperature increase there. Social media abstract. Respiration may be less dependent to changes in temperature at higher than lower latitudes.Funding Agencies|VetenskapsradetSwedish Research Council [2020-01979, 2018-01794]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg FoundationKnut &amp; Alice Wallenberg Foundation [201243506-98683-24, 2016-04829]; European Research CouncilEuropean Research Council (ERC)European Commission [2016.0083]; [725546]</p

Upscaling carbon dioxide emissions from lakes

Abstract Quantifying CO 2 fluxes from lakes to the atmosphere is important for balancing regional and global-scale carbon budgets. CO 2 emissions are estimated through statistical upscaling procedures that aggregate data from a large number of lakes. However, aggregation can bias flux estimates if the physical and chemical factors determining CO 2 exchange between water and the atmosphere are not independent. We evaluated the magnitude of aggregation biases with moment expansions and pCO 2 data from 5140 Swedish lakes. The direction of the aggregation bias depends on lake size; mean flux was overestimated by 4% for small lakes (0.01-0.1 km 2 ) but underestimated by 13% for large lakes (100-1000 km 2 ). Simple covariance-based correction factors were generated to adjust for upscaling biases. These correction factors represent an easily interpretable and implemented approach to improving the accuracy of regional and global estimates of lake CO 2 emissions

Upscaling carbon dioxide emissions from lakes

Quantifying CO2 fluxes from lakes to the atmosphere is important for balancing regional and global-scale carbon budgets. CO2 emissions are estimated through statistical upscaling procedures that aggregate data from a large number of lakes. However, aggregation can bias flux estimates if the physical and chemical factors determining CO2 exchange between water and the atmosphere are not independent. We evaluated the magnitude of aggregation biases with moment expansions and pCO(2) data from 5140 Swedish lakes. The direction of the aggregation bias depends on lake size; mean flux was overestimated by 4% for small lakes (0.01-0.1 km(2)) but underestimated by 13% for large lakes (100-1000 km(2)). Simple covariance-based correction factors were generated to adjust for upscaling biases. These correction factors represent an easily interpretable and implemented approach to improving the accuracy of regional and global estimates of lake CO2 emissions

Temperature sensitivity of organic carbon mineralization in contrasting lake sediments

Temperature alone explains a great amount of variation in sediment organic carbon (OC) mineralization. Studies on decomposition of soil OC suggest that (1) temperature sensitivity differs between the fast and slowly decomposition OC and (2) over time, decreasing soil respiration is coupled with increase in temperature sensitivity. In lakes, autochthonous and allochthonous OC sources are generally regarded as fast and slowly decomposing OC, respectively. Lake sediments with different contributions of allochthonous and autochthonous components, however, showed similar temperature sensitivity in short-term incubation experiments. Whether the mineralization of OC in lake sediments dominated by allochthonous or autochthonous OC has different temperature sensitivity in the longer term has not been addressed. We incubated sediments from two boreal lakes that had contrasting OC origin (allochthonous versus autochthonous), and OC characteristics (C/N ratios of 21 and 10) at 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21 degrees C for five months. Compared to soil and litter mineralization, sediment OC mineralization rates were low in spite of low apparent activation energy (E-a). The fraction of the total OC pool that was lost during five months varied between 0.4 and 14.8%. We estimate that the sediment OC pool not becoming long-term preserved was degraded with average apparent turnover times between 3 and 32years. While OC mineralization was strongly dependent on temperature as well as on OC composition and origin, temperature sensitivity was similar across lakes and over time. We suggest that the temperature sensitivity of OC mineralization in lake sediments is similar across systems within the relevant seasonal scales of OC supply and degradation

Systematic microbial production of optically active dissolved organic matter in subarctic lake water

The ecology and biogeochemistry of lakes in the subarctic region are particularly sensitive to changes in the abundance and optical properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM). External input of colored DOM to these lakes is an extensively researched topic, but little is known about potential reciprocal feedbacks between the optical properties of DOM and internal microbial processes in the water. We performed 28-day dark laboratory incubation trials on water from 101 subarctic tundra lakes in northern Sweden, measuring the microbial decay of DOM and the resulting dynamics in colored (CDOM) and fluorescent (FDOM) DOM components. While losses in dissolved oxygen during the incubations corresponded to a 20% decrease in mean DOM, conversely the mean CDOM and total FDOM increased by 22% and 30%, respectively. However, the patterns in microbial transformation of the DOM were not the same in all lakes. Notably, along the gradient of increasing ambient CDOM (water brownness), the lakes showed decreased microbial production of protein-like fluorescence, lowered DOM turnover rates and decreasing bacterial growth per unit of DOM. These trends indicate that browning of subarctic lakes systematically change the way that bacteria interact with the ambient DOM pool. Our study underscores that there is no unidirectional causal link between microbial processes and DOM optical properties, but rather reciprocal dependence between the two

Temperature sensitivity of organic carbon mineralization in contrasting lake sediments

Temperature alone explains a great amount of variation in sediment organic carbon (OC) mineralization. Studies on decomposition of soil OC suggest that (1) temperature sensitivity differs between the fast and slowly decomposition OC and (2) over time, decreasing soil respiration is coupled with increase in temperature sensitivity. In lakes, autochthonous and allochthonous OC sources are generally regarded as fast and slowly decomposing OC, respectively. Lake sediments with different contributions of allochthonous and autochthonous components, however, showed similar temperature sensitivity in short-term incubation experiments. Whether the mineralization of OC in lake sediments dominated by allochthonous or autochthonous OC has different temperature sensitivity in the longer term has not been addressed. We incubated sediments from two boreal lakes that had contrasting OC origin (allochthonous versus autochthonous), and OC characteristics (C/N ratios of 21 and 10) at 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21 degrees C for five months. Compared to soil and litter mineralization, sediment OC mineralization rates were low in spite of low apparent activation energy (E-a). The fraction of the total OC pool that was lost during five months varied between 0.4 and 14.8%. We estimate that the sediment OC pool not becoming long-term preserved was degraded with average apparent turnover times between 3 and 32years. While OC mineralization was strongly dependent on temperature as well as on OC composition and origin, temperature sensitivity was similar across lakes and over time. We suggest that the temperature sensitivity of OC mineralization in lake sediments is similar across systems within the relevant seasonal scales of OC supply and degradation