A First Assessment of the 2018 European Drought Impact on Ecosystem Evapotranspiration

The combined heatwave and drought in 2018 notably affected the state and functioning of European ecosystems. The severity and distribution of this extreme event across ecosystem types and its possible implication on ecosystem water fluxes are still poorly understood. This study estimates spatio-temporal changes in evapotranspiration (ET) during the 2018 drought and heatwave and assesses how these changes are distributed in European ecosystems along climatic gradients. We used the ET eight-day composite product from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) together with meteorological data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF ERA5). Our results indicate that ecosystem ET was strongly reduced (up to −50% compared to a 10-year reference period) in areas with extreme anomalies in surface air temperature (Tsa) and precipitation (P) in central, northern, eastern, and western Europe. Northern and Eastern Europe had prolonged anomalies of up to seven months with extreme intensities (relative and absolute) of Tsa, P, and ET. Particularly, agricultural areas, mixed natural vegetation, and non-irrigated agricultural areas were the most affected by the increased temperatures in northern Europe. Our results show contrasting drought impacts on ecosystem ET between the North and South of Europe as well as on ecosystem types.