Response to Comments on 'Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO 2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change'

We estimated a weakening of the Southern Ocean carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) sink since 1981 relative to the trend expected from the large increase in atmospheric CO 2 . We agree with Law et al . that network choice increases the uncertainty of trend estimates but argue that their network of five locations is too small to be reliable. A future reversal of Southern Ocean CO 2 saturation as suggested by Zickfeld et al . is possible, but only at high atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, and the effect would be temporary.