POSTER: European drought impacts on vegetation: a new pattern in recent two decades

Description

We analyzed inter-annual trends and anomalies of drought intensity and vegetation productivity and drought-vegetation associations across European biomes from 2000 to 2020. An overall strong increase in vegetation productivity was found at a rate of about 6.4% per decade, albeit an increase in drought intensity of 0.11 Z-score decade-1 (SPEI3). The drought slowed down the vegetation productivity rate by about 2.9% and the non-drought factors (e.g. human) also prohibited the vegetation productivity. The drought using SPEI12 showed an even stronger increase in intensity (0.14 Z-score decade-1), which led to 3.5% decreases in vegetation productivity rate. The biomes in Eastern Europe were highly sensitive to drought, only the shrubland showing resistance to drought. Western Europe was experiencing decreasing vegetation productivity, notably in cropland and grassland. The European drought regime was altered: a striking decrease in drought intensity and an increase in vegetation productivity were found in southern Europe, indicating an alleviated drought condition favoring plant growth. A strong increase in drought intensity was observed in central European countries and western Russia, followed by Sweden. Our results revealed a new drought pattern in Europe, and drought hazard management should be focused on vulnerable biomes and regions with increasing drought intensity.

Period	2022 May 17
Event title	Swedish Climate Symposium 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	Norrköping, SwedenShow on map