The European heatwave of 2018 led to record-breaking temperatures and extremely dry conditions in many parts of the continent, resulting in widespread decrease in agricultural yield, early tree-leaf senescence, and increase in forest fires in Northern Europe. Our study aims to capture the impact of the 2018 European heatwave on the terrestrial ecosystem through the lens of a high-resolution solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) data acquired from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite. SIF is proposed to be a direct proxy for gross primary productivity (GPP) and thus can be used to draw inferences about changes in photosynthetic activity in vegetation due to extreme events. We explore spatial and temporal SIF variation and anomaly in the spring and summer months across different vegetation types (agriculture, broadleaved forest, coniferous forest, and mixed forest) during the European heatwave of 2018 and compare it to non-drought conditions (most of Southern Europe). About one-third of Europe’s land area experienced a consecutive spring and summer drought in 2018. Comparing 2018 to mean conditions (i.e., those in 2015–2017), we found a change in the intra-spring season SIF dynamics for all vegetation types, with lower SIF during the start of spring, followed by an increase in fluorescence from mid-April. Summer, however, showed a significant decrease in SIF. Our results show that particularly agricultural areas were severely affected by the hotter drought of 2018. Furthermore, the intense heat wave in Central Europe showed about a 31% decrease in SIF values during July and August as compared to the mean over the previous three years. Furthermore, our MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and OCO-2 comparative results indicate that especially for coniferous and mixed forests, OCO-2 SIF has a quicker response and a possible higher sensitivity to drought in comparison to MODIS’s fPAR (fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) when considering shorter reference periods, which highlights the added value of remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence for studying the impact of drought on vegetation.

Amazonian ecosystems are major biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks that may lose species to extinction and become carbon sources due to extreme dry or warm conditions. We investigated the seasonal patterns of high-resolution solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) measured by the satellite Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) across the Amazonian ecoregions to assess the area´s phenology and extreme drought vulnerability. SIF is an indicator of the photosynthetic activity of chlorophyll molecules and is assumed to be directly related to gross primary production (GPP). We analyzed SIF variability in the Amazon basin during the period between September 2014 and December 2018. In particular, we focused on the SIF drought response under the extreme drought period during the strong El Niño in 2015–2016, as well as the 6-month drought peak period. During the drought´s peak months, the SIF decreased and increased with different intensities across the ecoregions of the Amazonian moist broadleaf forest (MBF) biome. Under a high temperature, a high vapor pressure deficit, and extreme drought conditions, the SIF presented differences from −31.1% to +17.6%. Such chlorophyll activity variations have been observed in plant-level measurements of active fluorescence in plants undergoing physiological responses to water or heat stress. Thus, it is plausible that the SIF variations in the ecoregions’ ecosystems occurred as a result of water and heat stress, and arguably because of drought-driven vegetation mortality and collateral effects in their species composition and community structures. The SIF responses to drought at the ecoregional scale indicate that there are different levels of resilience to drought across MBF ecosystems that the currently used climate- and biome-region scales do not capture. Finally, we identified monthly SIF values of 32 ecoregions, including non-MBF biomes, which may give the first insights into the photosynthetic activity dynamics of Amazonian ecoregions.

The European heatwave of 2018 led to record-breaking temperatures and extremely dry conditions in many parts of the continent resulting in widespread decrease in agricultural yield, early tree-leaf senescence, and increase in forest fires in Northern Europe. Our study aims to capture the impact of the 2018 European heatwave on terrestrial ecosystem through the lens of a high-resolution solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) data acquired from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite. SIF is proposed to be a direct proxy for gross primary productivity (GPP) and thus can be used to draw inferences about changes in photosynthetic activity in vegetation due to extreme events. We explore spatial and temporal SIF variation and anomaly during spring and summer months across different vegetation types (agriculture, broadleaved forest, coniferous forest, and mixed forest) during the European heatwave of 2018 and compare it to non-drought conditions (most of Southern Europe). About one-third of Europe’s land area experienced a consecutive spring and summer drought in 2018. Comparing 2018 to mean (2015-2017) conditions, we found a change in intra-spring season SIF dynamics for all vegetation types, with lower SIF during the start of spring followed by an increase in fluorescence from mid-April. Summer, however, showed a significant decrease in SIF. Our results show that particularly agricultural areas were severely affected by the hotter drought of 2018. Furthermore, the intense heat wave in Central Europe showed about 31% decrease in SIF values during July and August as compared to the mean over three previous years. Furthermore, our MODIS and OCO-2 comparative results indicate that especially for forests, OCO-2 SIF has a quicker response and possible higher sensitivity to drought in comparison to MODIS’s fPAR and NDVI when considering shorter reference periods, which highlights the added value of remotely sensed solar-induced fluorescence for studying the impact of drought on vegetation.