A first estimate of organic carbon storage in Holocene lake sediments in Alberta, Canada

This paper reports a first estimate of the Holocene lake sediment carbon po ol in Alberta, Canada. The organic matter content of lake sediment does not appear to depend strongly on lake size or other limnological parameters, a llowing a simple first estimate in which we assume all Alberta lake sedimen t to have the same organic matter content. Alberta lake sediments sequester about 15 g C m(-2) yr(-1), for a provincial total of 0.23 Tg C yr(-1), or 2.3 Pg C over the Holocene. Alberta lakes may represent as much as 1/1700 o f total global, annual permanent carbon sequestration.