Identifying the dominant compound events and their impacts on vegetation growth in China

Terrestrial vegetation plays a vital role in global carbon recycling, but it is also affected by compound events (CEs); however, little is known about the impacts of these CEs on vegetation in terms of their occurrence and magnitude. Using meteorological observations and vegetation indices (leaf area index (LAI), gross primary productivity (GPP), and net primary productivity (NPP)) from 1981 to 2020, we explored the occurrence of 13 CEs types and identified the dominant CEs types across different eco-geographical regions of China, and quantified the response of various vegetation types to dominant CEs. We found that CEs of extreme hot-dry, extreme hot-dry-high fire weather, dry-high fire weather, and high fire weather-strong wind were the dominant types of compound events during the growing season in China, and their hazards increased at a rate of >0.1HI/10a during 1981–2020. We further detected that more than 60% of the total vegetation areas showed a strong negative correlation with compound extreme hot-dry-high fire weather-strong wind events, which was relatively higher than compound extreme hot-dry events. The response of vegetation to compound events varied at the national scale, which was related to the vegetation type, dominant compound event type, and local natural conditions. This study highlights the benefits of a multivariate perspective on compound events and reveals the regional differences in the response of vegetation to compound events, which can provide initial guidance to assess the regional compound event risk of vegetation against the background of carbon neutrality by 2060. • We explored occurrence of 13 compound event (CE) types in China from 1981 to 2020. • CE types related to hot or dry events occurred frequently during growth seasons. • We identified the dominant CE types for each eco-geographical region of China. • We also revealed regional differences in responses of vegetation to dominant CEs.