Overcompensation of vegetation productivity after late-spring frost in the Northern Hemisphere.

Vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere overcompensates after late-spring frost in 21.5-41.0% of events, leading to annual productivity exceeding non-frost levels.

• Why it matters: Understanding this overcompensation is crucial for accurately predicting how climate extremes influence terrestrial carbon cycling and ecosystem resilience amid global warming.
• What they did: The study analyzed eddy-covariance data, satellite measurements, and frost experiments across multiple years, revealing that overcompensation is most pronounced at high latitudes and enhanced by warmer temperatures and greater species diversity.
• The result: Over the past two decades, overcompensation has intensified, and models project it will become more common in future climates, highlighting the need to include this response in Earth system models for better climate impact assessments.