Human-caused increases in phosphorus burials in global lake sediments during the Holocene

Human activities have contributed to significant disruptions of the phosphorus (P) cycle on Earth’s surface. Yet, there is little information about when and how humans started to influence the global P cycle in the past. In this study, we reconstruct lake-wide P burial rates during the Holocene based on sediment-P data of 108 lakes across the globe. The results indicate the first distinct increases in lake P burial rates after the mid-late Holocene (at around 4000 years before present BP) at global scales and in Europe. Yet, different land-use histories have caused different timings of the first increases in lake P records in other regions, with ~2000 BP in China and ~550 BP in North America. We further show that global lake P-sequestration rate from ~4000 BP to 1850 Common Era (CE) has doubled compared with that in the period before 4000 BP. Since 1850 CE, the value increased ~six-fold compared with the period before 4000 BP. These findings indicate that anthropogenic activities have been affecting the global P cycle over a pre-industrial background for millennia.