# Vegetation Productivity Losses Linked to Mediterranean Hot and Dry Events
## 3 Results
### Seasonal Productivity Disturbances
This is reverted from May-onwards, with high LST values especially recorded in July and August, in conjunction with a rapid decrease in soil moisture content, which led to reductions in vegetation productivity (Figure 4a,b, central panel) that reached a low GPP anomaly in July (\(-\)0.041 kg C/m\({}^{2}\)/month). In the two years following 2007, large-scale recovery was only partial, as expressed by the consecutive months in spring and summer 2008 with negative GPP anomalies. Productivity in the affected vegetation was inhibited in subsequent months, as the annual balance of GPP between 2007 and 2009, over the affected pixels, reached a negative departure from the median of 14.10 TgC. In WE, cumulative GPP changes in 2003 over the stressed pixels are characterized by two phases: one with values above the historical median until May and another, from June-onwards, with cumulative values below the 25 th percentile (Figure 3a, right panel). High average LST anomalies were registered (+3.4 \({}^{\circ}\)C in July and +4.8 \({}^{\circ}\)C in August), accompanied by rapid reductions in soil moisture content in the summer (Figure 4a,b, right panel) resulting in strong monthly GPP anomalies, especially in July and August (Figure 3b, right panel). The episode of 2003 was associated with vegetation losses over the affected pixels of \(-\)7.72 TgC/year; it is worth mentioning the inhibition of vegetation recovery over the following two years, as registered on negative GPP annual balances of \(-\)2.11 and \(-\)2.00 TgC/year in 2004 and 2005, respectively (Table 3). Figure 3: Disturbances in vegetation productivity in IB during the 2005 event (left panels), EM during the 2007 event (central panels) and WE during the 2003 event (right panels): (**a**) cumulative GPP for the ecological extreme pixels during the extreme event year (red), the two following years (light and dark green) and the historical median (black). Light grey interval comprises the 25 and 75 percentiles; (**b**) average GPP monthly anomalies in the selected pixels during extreme event year (red) and the two following years (light and dark green). J A J O represent the months of January, April, July and October of the respective year. For the 2006 episode, the cumulative GPP started to depart from the long-term 25-75% range in July, after several months with negative GPP anomalies (Figure A2, right panel). The strongest negative GPP anomalies were registered in the summer, concurrent with departures of SM from the long-term mean, as well as high LST values, especially in July (Figure A3, right panel). The recovery of soil moisture to normal values in the fall allowed for the recovery of GPP in the subsequent months. The annual disturbances of stressed vegetation were \(-13.58\) TgC/year (Table 3), with the summer months representing the largest productivity deficits that occurred in that year. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Annual GPP Balance**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**IB**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**EM**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**WE**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **2005** & **2012** & **2003** & **2007** & **2003** & **2006** \\ \hline Extreme Year & \(-46.98\) & \(-10.19\) & \(-21.12\) & \(-9.31\) & \(-7.72\) & \(-13.58\) \\ Productivity Losses & \(-8.99\) & \(3.60\) & \(-1.12\) & \(-3.64\) & \(-2.11\) & \(3.72\) \\ \hline
2 nd Year of Recovery & \(14.91\) & \(1.93\) & \(-2.49\) & \(-1.15\) & \(-2.00\) & \(-2.58\) \\ \hline
3-Year Productivity & \(-\mathbf{41.06}\) & \(-\mathbf{4.66}\) & \(-\mathbf{24.73}\) & \(-\mathbf{14.10}\) & \(-\mathbf{11.93}\) & \(-\mathbf{12.44}\) \\ Balance & & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Annual GPP balance (TgC/year) relative to the median for all the study cases. The 3-year productivity balance corresponds to the integrated annual values that occurred during the ecological event year and the two following years.