Sebastian Sobek
Professor at Institutionen för ekologi och genetik; Limnologi
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 27 18
- E-mail:
- Sebastian.Sobek@ebc.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Evolutionsbiologiskt centrum (EBC)
Norbyvägen 18 D
752 36 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Norbyvägen 18 D
752 36 Uppsala
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Short presentation
My research is about carbon cycling in inland water ecosystems, with special focus on belowground processes (carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas production in sediments) and greenhouse gas emission to the atmosphere.
For a popular scienctific portait of my research, click here.
For more information on the research and current projects, continue reading below.
Biography
Degrees
2012 Docent, Limnology, (UU).
2005 PhD, Limnology, (UU)
2001 MSc, Biology, (UU).
Positions
Since 2020 Professor in Biology, particularly Limnology, Dep. of Ecology and Genetics, UU.
2015-2018 Guest Professor (part-time) at Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
2015-2019 Senior Lecturer, Limnology, UU.
2010-2014 Assistant Professor, Limnology, UU.
2009 Scientist, Swedish Agricultural University (SLU).
2006-2009 Post-doctoral researcher, ETH Zurich and Eawag, Switzerland.
2005 Scientist, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Corporation.
2000 - 2005 PhD student, Limnology, UU.
1999 - 2000 Research and teaching assistant, UU.
Research
Inland waters, i.e. lakes, running waters and reservoirs, cover only a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, but are disproportionally active sites of carbon cycling. Inland waters receive sizeable loads of terrestrial carbon from the surrounding catchment, triggering intensive processing: the microbial degradation of organic matter leads to high carbon dioxide and methane emissions to the atmosphere, and at the same time, organic carbon burial in sediments constitutes a significant long-term carbon sink.
We combine field measurements, lab experiments and modelling, and our studies range from processes-scale understanding of degradation and preservation in sediments to catchment-scale and global-scale assessments of aquatic carbon fluxes.
A common denominator of all projects is to understand the interactions between biogeochemical cycling in aquatic systems and environmental change. A past ERC project gives a good example of the work we do.
Recently started work investigates carbon fluxes in connection to ecosystem restoration and nature-based solutions (CLIMIPHY, PredPeat).
Current projects:
- Minimizing the climate footprint of river restoration (CLIMIPHY). PI. 2024-2027, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development FORMAS, 1.6 M€.
- Minimizing the climate footprint of restoring riverine wetlands. PI. 2024-2027, Lamm Foundation, 200 000 €.
- Anthropogenic perturbation of organic carbon burial in global lake sediments. PI. 2022-2024, Swedish Research Council (VR), 380 000 €.
- Predicting the effects of peatland rewetting on water retention and water quality (PredPeat). Co-PI. 2022-2026, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development FORMAS, 1.6 M€.
- Sources and dynamics of greenhouse gases in agricultural streams – a process-based approach for improved understanding of a large atmospheric source. Co-PI. 2022-2025, Swedish Research Council (VR), 400 000 €.
- Leakage of environmentally problematic substances from sediment at dam removal. PI. 2021-2024, Swedish Energy Agency, 400 000 €.
Current people:
- Simone Moras, PhD student: linkning sediment methane production to methane emission
- Anna Bottone, PhD student: fate of sediment organic matter at dam removal
- Esra Reichert, PhD student: carbon burial in constructed wetlands
- Sahra Gibson, PhD student: water-related ecosystem services after peatland rewetting (co-advisor)
- Khadija Aziz, PhD student: greenhouse gas emission from agricultural streams (co-advisor)
- Ana Ayala, Post-doc: modelling of carbon burial in global lakes
Publications
Recent publications
- Predicting Methane Formation Rates of Freshwater Sediments in Different Biogeographic Regions (2024)
- Global increase in methane production under future warming of lake bottom waters (2022)
- Cross-continental importance of CH4 emissions from dry inland-waters (2022)
- An empirical model to predict methane production in inland water sediment from particular organic matter supply and reactivity (2021)
- Spatially Resolved Measurements in Tropical Reservoirs Reveal Elevated Methane Ebullition at River Inflows and at High Productivity (2021)
All publications
Articles
- Predicting Methane Formation Rates of Freshwater Sediments in Different Biogeographic Regions (2024)
- Global increase in methane production under future warming of lake bottom waters (2022)
- Cross-continental importance of CH4 emissions from dry inland-waters (2022)
- An empirical model to predict methane production in inland water sediment from particular organic matter supply and reactivity (2021)
- Spatially Resolved Measurements in Tropical Reservoirs Reveal Elevated Methane Ebullition at River Inflows and at High Productivity (2021)
- Hotspots of diffusive CO2 and CH4 emission from tropical reservoirs shift through time (2021)
- Where does the river end? (2020)
- The CO2-equivalent balance of freshwater ecosystems is non-linearly related to productivity (2020)
- Comparing methane ebullition variability across space and time in a Brazilian reservoir (2020)
- High organic carbon burial but high potential for methane ebullition in the sediments of an Amazonian hydroelectric reservoir (2020)
- Predicting lake dissolved organic carbon at a global scale (2020)
- Carbon dioxide emission from drawdown areas of a Brazilian reservoir is linked to surrounding land cover (2019)
- The transformation of macrophyte-derived organic matter to methane relates to plant water and nutrient contents (2019)
- Dams (2019)
- Methane formation in tropical reservoirs predicted from sediment age and nitrogen (2019)
- Reduced Mineralization of Terrestrial OC in Anoxic Sediment Suggests Enhanced Burial Efficiency in Reservoirs Compared to Other Depositional Environments (2019)
- Implications of river intrusion and convective mixing on the spatial and temporal variability of under-ice CO2 (2019)
- Large but variable methane production in anoxic freshwater sediment upon addition of allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter (2018)
- CO2 evasion from boreal lakes (2018)
- High spatial variability of gas transfer velocity in streams revealed by turbulence measurements (2018)
- Extreme drought boosts CO2 and CH4 emissions from reservoir drawdown areas (2018)
- Spatially Resolved Measurements of CO2 and CH4 Concentration and Gas-Exchange Velocity Highly Influence Carbon-Emission Estimates of Reservoirs (2018)
- High variability in iron-bound organic carbon among five boreal lake sediments (2018)
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Freshwater Reservoirs (2018)
- Carbon dioxide and methane emissions of Swedish low-order streams (2018)
- High terrestrial carbon load via groundwater to a boreal lake dominated by surface water inflow (2017)
- Organic carbon burial in global lakes and reservoirs (2017)
- Widespread release of dissolved organic carbon from anoxic boreal lake sediments (2017)
- Temperature Dependence of Apparent Respiratory Quotients and Oxygen Penetration Depth in Contrasting Lake Sediments (2017)
- The role of sediments in the carbon budget of a small boreal lake (2016)
- Regional Variability and Drivers of Below Ice CO2 in Boreal and Subarctic Lakes (2016)
- The effect of lake browning and respiration mode on the burial and fate of carbon and mercury in the sediment of two boreal lakes (2016)
- Low sediment-water gas exchange in a small boreal lake (2016)
- Organic carbon burial efficiency in a large tropical hydroelectric reservoir (2016)
- Enhanced carbon loss from anoxic lake sediment through diffusion of dissolved organic carbon (2016)
- Phosphorus transport by the largest Amazon tributary (Madeira River, Brazil) and its sensitivity to precipitation and damming (2015)
- Uncoupled organic matter burial and quality in boreal lake sediments over the Holocene (2015)
- Temporal and spatial carbon dioxide concentration patterns in a small boreal lake in relation to ice cover dynamics (2015)
- Temperature sensitivity of organic carbon mineralization in contrasting lake sediments (2015)
- Carbon dioxide evasion from headwater systems strongly contributes to the total export of carbon from a small boreal lake catchment (2015)
- Temporal control on concentration, character and export of dissolved organic carbon in two hemiboreal headwater streams draining contrasting catchments (2015)
- Carbon Sequestration in a Large Hydroelectric Reservoir (2014)
- Regional-scale variation of dissolved organic carbon concentrations in Swedish lakes (2014)
- Climate science (2014)
- Low organic carbon burial efficiency in arctic lake sediments (2014)
- Spatial variation of sediment mineralization supports differential CO2 emissions from a tropical hydroelectric reservoir (2013)
- Water renewal along the aquatic continuum offsets cumulative retention by lakes (2013)
- Global carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters (2013)
- Benthic ostracode ∂13C as sensor for early Holocene establishment of modern circulation patterns in Central Europe (2013)
- Hydroelectric carbon sequestration (2012)
- Hydroelectric carbon sequestration (2012)
- Extreme organic carbon burial fuels intense methane bubbling in a temperate reservoir (2012)
- Carbon Dioxide in Boreal Surface Waters (2012)
- Eddy covariance flux measurements confirm extreme CH(4) emissions from a Swiss hydropower reservoir and resolve their short-term variability (2011)
- Predicting the volume and depth of lakes from map-derived parameters (2011)
- The burial efficiency of organic carbon in the sediments of Lake Kinneret (2011)
- Extreme methane emissions from a Swiss hydropower reservoir (2010)
- Temperature-controlled organic carbon mineralization in lake sediments (2010)
- Large CO2 disequilibria in tropical lakes (2009)
- Sources and emission of greenhouse gases in Danube Delta lakes (2009)
- Organic carbon burial efficiency in lake sediments controlled by oxygen exposure time and sediment source (2009)
- Lakes and reservoirs as regulators of carbon cycling and climate (2009)
- Linking allochthonous dissolved organic matter and boreal lake sediment carbon sequestration (2008)
- Integrating aquatic carbon fluxes in a boreal catchment carbon budget (2007)
- Patterns and regulation of dissolved organic carbon (2007)
- Organic carbon budget for the Gulf of Bothnia (2006)
- Comparison of a mass balance and an ecosystem model approach when evaluating the carbon cycling in a lake ecosystem (2006)
- Changes in bacterial community composition along a solar radiation gradient in humic waters (2006)
- A carbon budget of a small humic lake (2006)
- Contribution of sediment respiration to summer CO2 emission from low productive boreal and subarctic lakes (2005)
- Mapping lake CDOM by satellite remote sensing. (2005)
- Using satellite remote sensing to estimate the colored dissolved organic matter absorption coefficient in lakes (2005)
- Skogens sjöar - ingen buffert (2005)
- Temperature independence of carbon dioxide supersaturation in global lakes (2005)
- Role of lakes for organic carbon cycling in the boreal zone (2004)
- Seasonal variation of CO2 saturation in the Gulf of Bothnia (2004)
- Emission of CO2 from hydroelectric reservoirs in northern Sweden (2004)
- The catchment and climate regulation of pCO2 in boreal lakes (2003)
- Mineralization of organic carbon in lake sediments: temperature sensitivity and a comparison to soils
- Contribution of aquatic and terrestrial sources to sediment organic carbon of four contrasting tropical reservoirs.
- Deconstructing carbon emission pathways of a diel cycle from four tropical reservoirs
- Microbial and photochemical mineralization in the water-column of two boreal lakes during mid-summer conditions
Conferences
Data sets
