Large-scale early-wilting response of Central European forests to the 2018 extreme drought.

ABSTRACT: The combination of drought and heat affects forest ecosystems by deteriorating the health of trees, which can lead to large-scale die-offs with consequences on biodiversity, the carbon cycle, and wood production. It is thus crucial to understand how drought events affect tree health and which factors determine forest susceptibility and resilience. We analyze the response of Central European forests to the 2018 summer drought with 10 × 10 m satellite observations. By associating time-series statistics of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with visually classified observations of early wilting, we show that the drought led to early leaf-shedding across 21,500 ± 2,800 km² , in particular in central and eastern Germany and in the Czech Republic. High temperatures and

SUBMITTER: Brun P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7756440 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature