Lake eutrophication increases unprotected organic carbon pools in sediments
Abstract
Reactive iron oxide-bound organic carbon (Fe–OC) is a key pathway for long-term carbon burial, but its effectiveness under increasingly widespread eutrophication remains uncertain. Here we show that Fe–OC accounts for 16% of total organic carbon and buries at ~14 Mt C yr ⁻¹ in lakes globally, equivalent to ~27% of the marine Fe–OC sink despite lakes covering only ~1.25% of marine area. However, bloom-prone lakes exhibit lower Fe–OC content and contribution to sedimentary organic carbon than non–bloom-prone lakes. Field observations and incubation experiments further reveal that bloom-induced redox fluctuations and low-aromaticity algal organic matter inputs jointly accelerate Fe–OC turnover and reduce organic carbon loading on Fe minerals, causing Fe–OC losses of up to ~68%. These findings suggest that eutrophication weakens the long-term carbon burial capacity of lakes by increasing unprotected organic carbon pools in sediments, necessitating reevaluation of their contributions to the global carbon budget.
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BibTeX
@article{gong2026lake,
title = {{Lake eutrophication increases unprotected organic carbon pools in sediments}},
author = {Youzi Gong and Cai Li and Yue Yang and Xue Jiang and Yang Gu and Jipeng Song and Yan Wang and Musong Chen and Yongjiu Cai and Xiaoping Wang and Xiaolong Wang and Shiming Ding},
journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s43247-026-04103-9},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04103-9},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Lake eutrophication increases unprotected organic carbon pools in sediments
AU - Youzi Gong
AU - Cai Li
AU - Yue Yang
AU - Xue Jiang
AU - Yang Gu
AU - Jipeng Song
AU - Yan Wang
AU - Musong Chen
AU - Yongjiu Cai
AU - Xiaoping Wang
AU - Xiaolong Wang
AU - Shiming Ding
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
DO - 10.1038/s43247-026-04103-9
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-026-04103-9
AB - Reactive iron oxide-bound organic carbon (Fe–OC) is a key pathway for long-term carbon burial, but its effectiveness under increasingly widespread eutrophication remains uncertain. Here we show that Fe–OC accounts for 16% of total organic carbon and buries at ~14 Mt C yr ⁻¹ in lakes globally, equivalent to ~27% of the marine Fe–OC sink despite lakes covering only ~1.25% of marine area. However, bloom-prone lakes exhibit lower Fe–OC content and contribution to sedimentary organic carbon than non–bloom-prone lakes. Field observations and incubation experiments further reveal that bloom-induced redox fluctuations and low-aromaticity algal organic matter inputs jointly accelerate Fe–OC turnover and reduce organic carbon loading on Fe minerals, causing Fe–OC losses of up to ~68%. These findings suggest that eutrophication weakens the long-term carbon burial capacity of lakes by increasing unprotected organic carbon pools in sediments, necessitating reevaluation of their contributions to the global carbon budget.
SN - 2662-4435
ER -