Recent primary production increases in arctic lakes

Abstract

A new application of reflectance spectroscopy enables inferences of lake sediment chlorophyll a concentrations and hence of historical trends in lacustrine primary production. In a survey of six arctic lakes on Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada), pronounced increases of spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a concentrations are consistently expressed in sediments deposited during the 20th century. Climate warming appears to be increasing both aquatic chlorophyll a production and its sequestration to sediments, as these lakes enter new biological regimes that are largely unique in the context of the late Holocene. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.