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Accelerated soil erosion alters lateral exports of carbon (C) along the land to ocean aquatic continuum (LOAC) that needs to be accounted for closing the global C budget. However, monitoring data do not extend back as far as few decades, limiting our comprehension of the role of soil erosion and its dynamics in the global C budget on centennial timescale. As such, we lack the ability to make predictions about the responses of soil erosion and C transfers to long-term climate and land cover changes. To address this gap, I propose to analyse the spatial and temporal variability of soil erosion and C exports using an unprecedented data collection of near-annual terrigenous and C signatures preserved in sediments from hundreds of lakes around the world. Paleolimnological reconstructions will be integrated to semi-empirical models of erosion constrained for the last 300 years by pollen fossil and climate paleodata in order to quantify the C exports to inland waters. With a new perspective on empirically constrained models of C-exports, the project will advance our understanding of the influence of land use and climate on the C cycle during the Anthropocene.

Jean-Philippe Jenny, Partick Durand, George-Marie Saulnier, Vincent Chanudet 

ANR Grant 2020-2024