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Carbon and greenhouse gas budgets of Europe: trends, interannual and spatial variability, and their drivers
  • +40
  • Ronny Lauerwald,
  • Ana Bastos,
  • Matthew J McGrath,
  • Ana-Maria-Roxana Petrescu,
  • François Ritter,
  • Robbie M Andrew,
  • Antoine Berchet,
  • Grégoire Broquet,
  • Dominik Brunner,
  • Frederic Chevallier,
  • Alessandro Cescatti,
  • Sara Filipek,
  • Audrey Fortems-Cheiney,
  • Giovanni Forzieri,
  • Pierre Friedlingstein,
  • Richard Fuchs,
  • Christoph Gerbig,
  • Sander Houweling,
  • Piyu Ke,
  • Bas J.W. Lerink,
  • Wei Li,
  • Xiaojun Li,
  • Ingrid Theodora Luijkx,
  • Guillaume Monteil,
  • Saqr Munassar,
  • Gert-Jan Nabuurs,
  • Prabir K. Patra,
  • Philippe Peylin,
  • Julia Pongratz,
  • Pierre Regnier,
  • Marielle SAUNOIS,
  • Mart-Jan Schelhaas,
  • Marko Scholze,
  • Stephen Sitch,
  • Rona L. Thompson,
  • Hanqin Tian,
  • Aki Tsuruta,
  • Chris Wilson,
  • Jean-Pierre Wigneron,
  • YITONG YAO,
  • Sönke Zaehle,
  • Philippe Ciais,
  • Wanjing Li
Ronny Lauerwald
Université Paris Saclay

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ana Bastos
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
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Matthew J McGrath
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), CEA CNRS UVSQ UPSACLAY
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Ana-Maria-Roxana Petrescu
Faculty of Science, Earth and Climate, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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François Ritter
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), CEA CNRS UVSQ UPSACLAY
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Robbie M Andrew
CICERO Center for International Climate Research
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Antoine Berchet
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ
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Grégoire Broquet
LSCE
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Dominik Brunner
EMPA
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Frederic Chevallier
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE)
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Alessandro Cescatti
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
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Sara Filipek
Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University and Research
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Audrey Fortems-Cheiney
LSCE
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Giovanni Forzieri
University of Florence
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Pierre Friedlingstein
University of Exeter
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Richard Fuchs
Land Use Change & Climate Research Group, IMK-IFU, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
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Christoph Gerbig
Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
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Sander Houweling
VU University Amsterdam
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Piyu Ke
Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University
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Bas J.W. Lerink
Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen University and Research
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Wei Li
Tsinghua University
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Xiaojun Li
INRAE
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Ingrid Theodora Luijkx
Wageningen University
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Guillaume Monteil
Lund University
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Saqr Munassar
Unknown
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Gert-Jan Nabuurs
ALTERRA, Wageningen
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Prabir K. Patra
JAMSTEC
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Philippe Peylin
LSCE
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Julia Pongratz
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
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Pierre Regnier
Department Geoscience, Environment & Society - BGEOSYS, Université Libre de Bruxelles,
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Marielle SAUNOIS
LSCE-IPSL (CEA/CNRS/UVSQ)
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Mart-Jan Schelhaas
Wageningen UR, Alterra
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Marko Scholze
Lund University
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Stephen Sitch
University of Exeter
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Rona L. Thompson
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
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Hanqin Tian
Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College
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Aki Tsuruta
FMI
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Chris Wilson
Leeds University
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Jean-Pierre Wigneron
INRAE
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YITONG YAO
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement
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Sönke Zaehle
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
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Philippe Ciais
Laboratory for Climate Sciences and the Environment (LSCE)
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Wanjing Li
Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University
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Abstract

In the framework of the RECCAP2 initiative, we present the greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon (C) budget of Europe. For the decade of the 2010s, we present a bottom-up (BU) estimate of GHG net-emissions of 3.9 Pg CO2-eq. yr-1 (global warming potential on 100 year horizon), and are largely dominated by fossil fuel emissions. In this decade, terrestrial ecosystems are a net GHG sink of 0.9 Pg CO2-eq. yr-1, dominated by a CO2 sink. For CH4 and N2O, we find good agreement between BU and top-down (TD) estimates from atmospheric inversions. However, our BU land CO2 sink is significantly higher than TD estimates. We further show that decadal averages of GHG net-emissions have declined by 1.2 Pg CO2-eq. yr-1 since the 1990s, mainly due to a reduction in fossil fuel emissions. In addition, based on both data driven BU and TD estimates, we also find that the land CO2 sink has weakened over the past two decades. In particular, we identified a decreasing sink strength over Scandinavia, which can be attributed to an intensification of forest management. These are partly offset by increasing CO2 sinks in parts of Eastern Europe and Northern Spain, attributed in part to land use change. Extensive regions of high CH4 and N2O emissions are mainly attributed to agricultural activities and are found in Belgium, the Netherlands and the southern UK. We further analyzed interannual variability in the GHG budgets. The drought year of 2003 shows the highest net-emissions of CO2 and of all GHGs combined.
15 Apr 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
15 Apr 2024Published in ESS Open Archive