We explore the role of lakes in carbon cycling and global climate, examine the mechanisms influencing carbon pools and transformations in lakes, and discuss how the metabolism of carbon in the inland waters is likely to change in response to climate. Furthermore, we project changes as global climate change in the abundance and spatial distribution of lakes in the biosphere, and we revise the estimate for the global extent of carbon transformation in inland waters. This synthesis demonstrates that the global annual emissions of carbon dioxide from inland waters to the atmosphere are similar in magnitude to the carbon dioxide uptake by the oceans and that the global burial of organic carbon in inland water sediments exceeds organic carbon sequestration on the ocean floor. The role of inland waters in global carbon cycling and climate forcing may be changed by human activities, including construction of impoundments, which accumulate large amounts of carbon in sediments and emit large amounts of methane to the atmosphere. Methane emissions are also expected from lakes on melting permafrost. The synthesis presented here indicates that (1) inland waters constitute a significant component of the global carbon cycle, (2) their contribution to this cycle has significantly changed as a result of human activities, and (3) they will continue to change in response to future climate change causing decreased as well as increased abundance of lakes as well as increases in the number of aquatic impoundments.

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Riverine transport of organic carbon (OC) to the ocean is a significant component in the global carbon (C) cycle and the concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) in rivers and lakes is vital for ecosystem properties and water quality for human use. By use of a large dataset comprising chemical variables and detailed catchment information in $ 1000 Norwegian pristine lakes covering a wide climatic range, we were able to predict TOC concentrations with high accuracy. We further predict, using a 'space-for-time' approach and a downscaled, moderate, climate change scenario, that northern, boreal regions likely will experience strong increases in OC export from catchments to surface waters. Median concentrations of OC in these lakes will increase by 65%, from the current median of 2.0-3.3 mg C L À1 . This is a long-term effect, primarily mediated by increased terrestrial vegetation cover in response to climate change. This increase OC will have severe impacts on food-webs, productivity and human use. Given the robustness of the estimates and the general applicability of the parameters, we suggest that these findings would be relevant to boreal areas in general.

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