Shrubs need to be represented in climate models, because they shape the response of high-latitude regions to climate change. We added three shrub types to the ORCHIDEE (Organising Carbon and Hydrology In Dynamic Ecosystems) land surface model using Arctic observations. Including shrubs reduces simulated biomass and carbon uptake, improving model agreement with measurements. This is a simple, observation-based approach and an important step towards better representations of shrubs and their climate change response in models.