File : D5.13
Author : Philippe Ciais (LSCE) and Ana Bastos (LMU, MPG)
The carbon balance of European ecosystems was studied for the 2018 mega drought event from a large ensemble of models and satellite observations to quantify spatial and temporal patterns on the net European land carbon sink and carry over effects from spring to summer. We found that the carbon sink in Europe was mostly enhanced in spring because of high radiation and temperature without soil moisture limitations, whereas a strong negative anomaly (smaller sink) was found later in temperate regions and a positive anomaly in northern Europe. The net carbon balance anomaly is composed of direct adverse summer climate effects on carbon uptake and of indirect adverse effects carried over from spring to summer in central Europe, but positive legacy effects in northern Europe.
Figure 1 : SPEI (Palmer drought index) anomalies for 2003, 2010, 2015 and 2018 growing seasons
