Martin Kastowski

Martin Kastowski is a researcher at the Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. His work focuses on biogeochemical processes in lake sediments, particularly carbon burial rates and their correlation to catchment properties, climate, and land use changes. In his 2011 study published in *Global Biogeochemical Cycles*, he co-analyzed sediment records from 228 European lakes to estimate long-term carbon burial at 1.25 Mt/yr, highlighting the underrepresentation of small lakes in global carbon cycle models.

• Research Focus: Carbon accumulation in lacustrine sediments, Pareto distribution of lake areas, Neolithic agricultural impacts on sedimentation rates.
• Key Findings: Boreal lakes dominate European lake coverage but have lower carbon burial rates; small lakes (<5 km²) contribute 50% of total burial despite their size.
• Methodology: Integrated GIS databases, sediment mass accumulation rates (CMAR), and dry bulk density (DBD) estimations to model carbon dynamics across diverse climatic and anthropogenic gradients.