Temperature sensitivity of organic carbon mineralization in contrasting lake sediments

Abstract

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°C for five months. Compared to soil and litter mineralization, sediment OC mineralization rates were low in spite of low apparent activation energy (Ea). 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. Key Point Similar temperature sensitivity across systems and within the seasonal scale