Abstract. Vegetation plays a vital role in the Earth system by sequestering carbon, producing food and oxygen, and providing evaporative cooling. Vegetation productivity extremes have multi-faceted implications, for example on crop yields or the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Here, we focus on productivity extremes as possible impacts of coinciding, potentially extreme hydrometeorological anomalies. Using monthly global satellite-based Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence data as a proxy for vegetation productivity from 2007–2015, we show that vegetation productivity extremes are related to hydrometeorological hazards as characterized through ERA5-Land reanalysis data in approximately 50 % of our global study area. For the latter, we are considering sufficiently vegetated and cloud-free regions, and we refer to hydrometeorological hazards as water- or energy-related extremes inducing productivity extremes. The relevance of the different hazard types varies in space; temperature-related hazards dominate at higher latitudes with cold spells contributing to productivity minima and heat waves supporting productivity maxima, while water-related hazards are relevant in the (sub-)tropics with droughts being associated with productivity minima and wet spells with the maxima. Alongside single hazards compound events such as joint droughts and heat waves or joint wet and cold spells also play a role, particularly in dry and hot regions. Further, we detect regions where energy control transitions to water control between maxima and minima of vegetation productivity. Therefore, these areas represent hotspots of land–atmosphere coupling where vegetation efficiently translates soil moisture dynamics into surface fluxes such that the land affects near-surface weather. Overall, our results contribute to pinpointing how potential future changes in temperature and precipitation could propagate to shifting vegetation productivity extremes and related ecosystem services.

Abstract. Vegetation plays a vital role in the Earth system by sequestering carbon, producing food and oxygen, and providing evaporative cooling. Vegetation productivity extremes have multi-faceted implications, for example on crop yields or the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Here, we focus on productivity extremes as possible impacts of coinciding, potentially extreme hydrometeorological anomalies. Using monthly global satellite-based Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence data as a proxy for vegetation productivity from 2007–2015, we show that vegetation productivity extremes are related to hydrometeorological hazards as characterized through ERA5-Land reanalysis data in approximately 50 % of our global study area. For the latter, we are considering sufficiently vegetated and cloud-free regions; and we refer to hydrometeorological hazards as water or energy related extremes inducing productivity extremes. The relevance of the different hazard types varies in space; temperature-related hazards dominate at higher latitudes with cold spells contributing to productivity minima and heat waves supporting productivity maxima, while water-related hazards are relevant in the (sub)tropics with droughts being associated with productivity minima and wet spells with the maxima. Next to single hazards also compound events such as joint droughts and heat waves or joint wet and cold spells play a role, particularly in dry and hot regions. Further, we detect regions where energy control transitions to water control between maxima and minima of vegetation productivity. Therefore, these areas represent hot spots of land-atmosphere coupling where vegetation efficiently translates soil moisture dynamics into surface fluxes such that the land affects near-surface weather. Overall, our results contribute to pinpoint how potential future changes in temperature and precipitation could propagate to shifting vegetation productivity extremes and related ecosystem services.

<p>Vegetation productivity is generally governed by water and energy availability. In arid regions, it is usually water-controlled (i.e. soil moisture), whereas in humid regions it is mainly influenced by energy variables (i.e. incoming radiation). Shifts within or even between these regimes might result from hydro-meteorological extremes. For example, during droughts vegetation might become water-limited even in typically energy-controlled regions. In this context, the aim of our analysis is to detect the difference between the controls of average and extreme vegetation productivity.</p><p>For this purpose, we use global satellite-based Sun-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) data as a proxy for vegetation productivity alongside several hydro-meteorological variables. We select the three largest positive and negative monthly SIF anomalies from 2007 – 2015 and determine the hydro-meteorological variable with the largest corresponding standardized anomaly, which is considered to represent the main driver of the respective vegetation extreme.</p><p>We aggregate the results across grid cells of similar climate conditions. By contrasting main controls and their importance on vegetation productivity during extreme and general conditions, we find that water control in arid regions and energy control in humid regions are overall consistent in both conditions, while the importance of deep root-zone soil moisture is significantly increased in arid regions. Then, we identify regions where transitions between water and energy-control occur and further assess to which extent such regime transitions amplify vegetation productivity anomalies and/or impact their recovery.</p><p>This study contributes to a better understanding of vegetation productivity extremes, which may change with changing future patterns of temperature and precipitation, with subsequent feedbacks on the climate system and implications on food security.</p>

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