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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-6075</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Northern high latitudes could become a net carbon source below 2 &amp;deg;C global warming</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Varney</surname>
<given-names>Rebecca M.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0637-0841</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hooke</surname>
<given-names>Daniel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6403-4275</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Steinert</surname>
<given-names>Norman J.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2154-5857</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Smallman</surname>
<given-names>T. Luke</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0835-1003</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mathison</surname>
<given-names>Camilla</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6269-4605</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Burke</surname>
<given-names>Eleanor J.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2158-141X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>CICERO International Center for Climate Research, Oslo, Norway</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>School of GeoSciences and National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>07</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>22</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Rebecca M. Varney et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6075/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6075/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6075/egusphere-2025-6075.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6075/egusphere-2025-6075.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Under historical warming, terrestrial ecosystems within the northern high latitudes have been a net carbon sink, providing vital mitigation against anthropogenic emissions of CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;. However, the long-term stability of this net sink is uncertain due to complex carbon cycle feedbacks in response to future climate change. Here, the PRIME framework is used to probabilistically quantify if and when this region will transition from a net carbon sink to a carbon source in a range of plausible future climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5), including overshoot (SSP5-3.4-OS). JULES - the land surface model component of PRIME, has the capability to explicitly simulate permafrost physics, dynamic vegetation and fire; key processes within high-latitude terrestrial ecosystems that are yet to be coupled together in Earth system models. In a low emission scenario, permafrost carbon emissions increase the risk of a net carbon source by more 50 % at 2 &amp;deg;C of warming, and at greater levels of warming in high emission scenarios. Conversely, in all emission scenarios dynamic vegetation is found to limit the sink-to-source transition at all warming levels by enhancing the carbon sink. Fire emissions can further weaken the sink by reducing its resilience to warming. A high temperature overshoot further limits the resilience of the carbon sink due to a reduction in temperatures after the peak, providing less optimal conditions for vegetation growth. These results highlight the importance of vegetation on the strength of the Arctic terrestrial carbon sink under warming and emphasise the need for representing comprehensive terrestrial climate feedbacks in Earth system models to improve projections of the land carbon response in future climate change trajectories.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Schmidt Futures</funding-source>
<award-id>CALIPSO</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
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</article>