Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 5 1 2008 10.5194/bg-5-1-2008 http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/1/2008/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/1/2008/bg-5-1-2008.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/1/2008/bg-5-1-2008.pdf 1 10 2008-01-03 Competing roles of rising CO₂ and climate change in the contemporary European carbon balance R. G. Harrison rob.harrison@metoffice.gov.uk C. D. Jones J. K. Hughes Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK Natural ecosystems respond to, and may affect climate change through uptake and storage of atmospheric CO₂. Here we use the land-surface and carbon cycle model JULES to simulate the contemporary European carbon balance and its sensitivity to rising CO₂ and changes in climate. We find that the impact of climate change is to decrease the ability of Europe to store carbon by 97 TgC yr^−1. In contrast, the effect of rising atmospheric CO₂ has been to stimulate increased uptake and storage. 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