Impacts of ice storm on forest gross primary productivity detected using multi-source remote sensing data

Impact of climate on the terrestrial carbon cycle is a focus of global change study. However, only a few researches have been conducted to investigate the influences of extreme climate events on terrestrial carbon cycling. This study takes Jian city, Jiangxi Province, China, as the study area to assess the regional change of gross primary productivity (GPP) caused by the severe ice storm hitting China in early 2008 using the remote sensing-driven VPM model and MODIS data. The severe ice storm caused a considerable decrease in GPP, especially during the period from Julian day 9 to Julian day 49, 2008. The average GPP values during this period were 0.4~0.5 g C/m² d lower compared with the 2001-2007 averages. Meanwhile, further analysis indicated that decrease in GPP differed spatially and was closely related to local topography.