Flash droughts in a hotspot region: Spatiotemporal patterns, possible climatic drivings and ecological impacts

作者：Jiahao Sun, Qingsong Zhang, Xuemei Liu, Jingxuan Sun, Liwen Chen, Yanfeng Wu, Boting Hu, Guangxin Zhang · 发表于：Weather and Climate Extremes · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1016/j.wace.2024.100700 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Hydrology and Drought Analysis、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics、Climate variability and models

Northeast China, recognized as a global flash drought hotspot and a region of nationally important commercial grains and ecological fragility, is highly susceptible to the profound impacts of droughts on both food security and ecological safety. However, the regional-scale characteristics, possible causes and impacts of flash droughts across Northeast China are rarely investigated. Soil moisture data from 2000 to 2022 were utilized to identify the onset, frequency and duration of flash droughts using the quantile method. The spatial trajectories of flash droughts were determined based on the patch-scale centroid transfers. Further, the possible drivings and ecological impacts of flash droughts were analyzed using datasets of climatic variables and gross primary productivity. We found that flash drought coverage with short onset (1- pentad onset) was generally larger than that with long onset (2-, 3- and 4-pentad onset). The affected area of flash droughts generally decreased, while the onset speed increased over the past two decades. Flash droughts frequently occurred the intersection of western Jilin Province, southern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and northern Liaoning Province but with short duration. Compared with 2001-2011, the start, middle and end centroids of flash droughts in 2012-2021 showed more spatial dynamic changes, mainly shifting towards the northeast-southwest and southeast-northwest directions. The onset of flash drought due to potential evapotranspirat...