# Vegetation Productivity Losses Linked to Mediterranean Hot and Dry Events
## 3 Results  
### Ecological Extreme Detection  
Figure 2 shows the number of months under stress, defined by GPP anomalies, for the studied cases of 2005 in IB, 2007 in EM and 2003 in WE, whose vegetation had more widespread extreme ecological stress. The percentage of territory with GPP anomalies below the specific pixel-level threshold was also analysed on a monthly basis. The results related to the studied cases of 2012 in IB, 2003 in EM and 2006 in WE are represented in Appendix A, Figure A1.  
Spatial patterns of LST and SM anomaly values between March and September for the three different studied areas were performed and shown in Supplementary Material, (studied cases in IB), (studied cases in EM) and (study cases in WE).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Land Cover**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**IB**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**EM**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**WE**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **2005** & **2012** & **2003** & **2007** & **2003** & **2006** \\ \hline High Tree Cover & 18.53 & 19.97 & 28.01 & 29.00 & 26.56 & 26.36 \\ Low Tree Cover & 55.48 & 53.90 & 41.39 & 40.90 & 29.88 & 30.18 \\ Cropland & 24.43 & 24.50 & 27.26 & 26.70 & 39.18 & 39.07 \\ Other & 1.56 & 1.63 & 3.34 & 3.39 & 4.38 & 4.39 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Percentage area cover by the 4 main land cover types in the years of the selected extreme episode for the three studied areas.  
During the 2005 episode, 250,655 km\({}^{2}\) of IB vegetation was under ecological stress conditions for five or more months (out of 12) (Table 2), especially during the spring and summer, when more than 30% of Iberian ecosystems revealed productivity anomalies lower than the specific pixel-based threshold (Figure 2b, left panel, green bars). Vegetation stress was particularly prolonged in the south-western, western, and north-eastern territories, lasting up to 6-8 months (Figure 2a, left panel). These affected areas recorded high LST anomalies of about 3-5 \({}^{\circ}\)C and strong soil moisture deficits, especially between April and June. In the 2012 episode, the ecosystems of the north-east and south regions of IB were disturbed (Figure A1, left panel) and the vegetation seemed to be more affected between April and June (Figure 2b, left panel, red bars), coinciding with periods of strong LST anomalies, both negative (in April) and positive (in May and June), as well as strong soil moisture deficits.  
Over EM, vegetative stress prevailed for five to seven months in 2003 in Italian and western Greece ecosystems (Figure A1, central panel), with high LST values being recorded over these regions especially in May and June. In 2007, stress conditions lasted five or more months on Italian and Greek territories (Figure 2a, central panel), affecting 76 112 km\({}^{2}\), with more incidences during May, June and particularly in July (Figure 2b, central panel, red bars). During these months, the negative GPP anomalies recorded coincided with high temperatures (LST anomalies higher than 2-3 \({}^{\circ}\)C) and soil moisture deficits lower than \(-0.02\) m\({}^{3}\)/m\({}^{3}\).  
In the WE domain, we found reductions in GPP for 5-7 months over 45 626 km\({}^{2}\) in 2003 (Table 2), located around Southern France and Corsica (Figure 2a, top right panel). High LST anomalies were also found across the affected areas, with higher incidences between June and August. In 2006, 76 766 km\({}^{2}\) of the vegetation of the WE region showed GPP anomalies lower than the specific monthly threshold during the spring and summer,  
Figure 2: (**a**) Number of months whose pixels revealed GPP anomalies below the specific threshold in the study regions; (**b**) Percentage of territory with GPP anomalies lower than the specific monthly threshold for each selected event.  
especially in central and western areas of France (Figure A1, right panel), covering more than 10% of the study region (Figure 2b, right panel, red bars).