Anthropogenic increase in organic carbon production and burial in two tropical Mexican crater lakes.

Lakes bury significant amounts of organic carbon (OC) in their sediments contributing to the removal of carbon from the short-term carbon cycle. Mounting evidence points to broadscale increases in lake OC burial rates under growing human perturbation; however, the extent and mechanisms giving rise to this trend are not well understood in the context of tropical regions. We sought to expand knowledge of natural and anthropogenic controls of lake carbon cycling at lower latitudes by investigating four centuries of changes in the carbon sink of two tropical lakes in Central Mexico.