Widespread reduction in gross primary productivity caused by the compound heat and drought in Yangtze River Basin in 2022

Abstract

Terrestrial ecosystems play a pivotal role in the global carbon sequestration process, and their photosynthetic capacity is highly susceptible to fluctuations in climate conditions. In 2022, the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) in China experienced an extensive and severe compounded heat and drought event. Compared with the past two decades, our results revealed that the temperature increased by approximately 0.78 ± 0.45 °C and precipitation decreased by about 45.20 ± 30.10 mm from July to October 2022 over the whole YRB. Region I (west from the Sichuan Basin and east to the easternmost of the basin) experienced a more severe temperature increase (0.98 ± 0.35 °C) and precipitation decrease (−60.27 ± 23.75 mm) compared to the other regions in the YRB. Changes in temperature and precipitation resulted in an increase of 0.14 ± 0.06 kPa in vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and a decrease of 5.28 ± 2.09 m3 m−3 in soil moisture, ultimately leading to a total loss of 26.12 ± 16.09 Tg C (about −6.08% compared to the 2001–2021 mean) in gross primary productivity (GPP) of July to October in 2022. It is noteworthy that broadleaf forests, which comprise 12.03% of the natural vegetation in region I, contributed only 6.46% of the GPP loss between July and October compared to other vegetation types, showing greater resistance to this climate event. Our findings from multiple linear regressions highlight that high temperatures and reduced soil moisture together contribute up to 94% photosynthesis loss in July–October in natural vegetation in region I, while the contribution of reduced VPD is minimal. In the future, we will further explore the impacts of compound heat and drought events on the coupled carbon and water cycles across different ecosystems, in order to better understand the ecosystem response mechanisms to extreme climates.