Organic Matter Accumulation Records in Lake Sediments

Abstract

The organic-matter content of lake sediments provides information that is important to studies of lacustrine paleoenvironments, the history of climate change, and the effects of humans on local and regional ecosystems. Sediment organic matter yields a record of its sources from biota of the past in its elemental, isotopic, and molecular composition. The types and amounts of alterations that occur to the original contributions of organic matter during and after incorporation into sediments indicate much about the former physical and geochemical environments of lakes. Organic geochemical investigation of the sources and alterations of organic matter in lake sediments is consequently significant to a multitude of disciplines.