Understanding the impact of a land surface temperature change as a proxy of drought on net primary productivity in the European mixed forest

Droughts are exacerbated by climate change, which makes them more frequent, prolonged, and catastrophic. This weather-related hazard is intensifying and profoundly influencing climate, forestry, and food security, amongst other things. During past years, many monthly temperature records in Europe have been broken, sometimes consecutively. The European Drought Observatory recently reported that since the beginning of 2022, Europe has been experiencing a severe to exceptional drought, and forecasts for the upcoming months indicate continued drier-than-average conditions. Water scarcity and heat stress result in lower productivity in forest ecosystems, spreading diseases and pests and damaging urban infrastructure. The relationship between temperature and NPP has been investigated before. However, LST is a crucial environmental component that can be viewed as a proxy for drought events in determining the energy flux between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. In essence, determining imbalances in LST patterns provides insight into the impact of drought on natural ecosystems, particularly in forest ecosystems. Therefore, this topic aims to investigate the LST change variation in the mixed forest ecosystem over the course of the past decade at the European scale and understand its link with NPP for the mixed forest ecosystems.