Temperature Dependence of Apparent Respiratory Quotients and Oxygen Penetration Depth in Contrasting Lake Sediments

Abstract

Lake sediments constitute an important compartment in the carbon cycle of lakes, by burying carbon over geological timescales and by production and emission of greenhouse gases. The degradation of organic carbon (OC) in lake sediments is linked to both temperature and oxygen (O2), but the interactive nature of this regulation has not been studied in lake sediments in a quantitative way. We present the first systematic investigation of the effects of temperature on the apparent respiratory quotient (RQ, i.e., the molar ratio between carbon dioxide (CO2) production and O2 consumption) in two contrasting lake sediments. Laboratory incubations of sediment cores of a humic lake and an eutrophic lake across a 1–21°C temperature gradient over 157 days revealed that both CO2 production and O2 consumption were positively, exponentially, and similarly dependent on temperature. The apparent RQ differed significantly between the lake sediments (0.63 ± 0.26 and 0.99 ± 0.28 in the humic and the eutrophic lake, respectively; mean ± SD) and was significantly and positively related to temperature. The O2 penetration depth into the sediment varied by a factor of 2 over the 1–21°C temperature range and was significantly, negatively, and similarly related to temperature in both lake sediments. Accordingly, increasing temperature may influence the overall extent of OC degradation in lake sediments by limiting O2 supply to aerobic microbial respiration to the topmost sediment layer, resulting in a concomitant shift to less effective anaerobic degradation pathways. This suggests that temperature may represent a key controlling factor of the OC burial efficiency in lake sediments.