Abstract
Compound climate events can strongly impact vegetation productivity, yet the direct and lagged vegetation productivity responses to seasonal compound warm-dry and cold-dry events remain unclear. Here we use observationally-constrained and process-based model data and analyze vegetation productivity responses to compound events of precipitation and temperature in spring and summer across global mid-to-high latitudes. We find regional asymmetries in direct and lagged effects of compound warm-dry events. In high-latitudes (>50°N), compound warm-dry events raise productivity. In contrast, in mid-latitudes (23.5–50°N/S), compound warm-dry events reduce productivity and compound warm-dry springs can cause and amplify summer droughts, thereby reducing summer productivity. Compound cold-dry events impose direct and lagged adverse impacts on productivity in mid-to-high latitudes, exceeding the impacts from individual cold and dry events. Our results highlight the benefits of a multivariate perspective on vegetation vulnerability as precipitation and temperature often covary and jointly drive vegetation impacts.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 123 |
| Journal | Communications Earth and Environment |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Environmental Science
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences