Impact of meteorological anomalies in the 2003 summer on Gross Primary Productivity in East Asia

Northern Eurasia experienced anomalous weather conditions in the 2003 summer. We examined how forest ecosystems responded to the meteorological anomalies during the period using the dataset collected at flux monitoring sites in Asia, including a boreal forest in Mongolia, temperate forests in China and Japan, and a sub-tropical forest in China, as well as the dataset from satellite remote sensing. From July to August 2003, an active rain band stayed in the mid-latitude in East Asia for an unusually long period. Under the influence of the rain band, the Gross Primary Production (GPP), of temperate forests was 20–30% lower in the 2003 summer than in other years due to significant reduction in the Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD). The GPP of a cool-temperate forest in the north of the rain band was slightly enhanced by the higher PPFD; however, the GPP of a sub-tropical forest located in the south of the rain band was reduced by drought stress due to extremely hot and dry conditions. The correlation coefficients for the year-to-year changes in the PPFD and GPP during mid-summer were calculated, and the spatial distribution was examined. The spatial pattern of the PPFD was calculated by satellite data, and that of the GPP was estimated by a regression-type model, which was trained and tested by ground observation data. The correlation was positive in the mid- and high-latitudes since light was an essential factor of the summer GPP. On the other hand, a negative correlation appeared in the lower latitudes, suggesting that the water limitation was much more important than the PPFD in the region. Our study illustrated that the integration of flux data from wide areas by combining satellite remote sensing data can help us gain an understanding of the ecosystem responses to large-scale meteorological phenomena.