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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Environmental Research Letters

Ground-based GNSS transmissometry reveals contrasting leaf and stem water dynamics in a central Amazon rainforest

  • Harley Bravos Da Silva1
  • Adriano Lima1
  • Regison Oliveira1
  • Bruno Gimenez2
  • Kyeungwoo Cho3
  • Jingfeng Wang3
  • Andreas Colliander4
  • Jeffrey Chambers5
  • Xiangtao Xu6
  • Hillary S Jenkins7
  • Christian Frankenberg8
  • Niro Higuchi9
1 more authors
  • Robinson Negron-Juarez5
9 affiliations
  1. 1National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA)
  2. 2National Institute of Amazonian Research
  3. 3Georgia Institute of Technology
  4. 4Finnish Meteorological Institute
  5. 5Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  6. 6Cornell University
  7. 7University of Redlands
  8. 8California Institute of Technology Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
  9. 9National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA)
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Abstract

Vegetation optical depth (VOD) is widely used to monitor vegetation water dynamics, yet its interpretation in dense tropical forests remains uncertain because independent observations of water partitioning among vegetation compartments are scarce. Here, we compare Global Navigation Satellite System transmissometry-derived VOD (GNSS-T VOD) with independent measurements of leaf, stem, and soil water in an old-growth Central Amazon rainforest. Stem water storage dominated total vegetation water storage and closely tracked seasonal soil moisture. In contrast, GNSS-T VOD exhibited opposing relationships with vegetation water compartments, being positively associated with leaf water storage (r = 0.65, p = 0.16) but negatively correlated with stem water storage and total vegetation water storage (both r = −0.83, p < 0.05). These contrasting relationships show that temporal variation in GNSS-T VOD cannot be explained by total vegetation water storage alone. Instead, these relationships highlight the importance of water partitioning among vegetation compartments when interpreting GNSS-T VOD. These observations provide a benchmark for interpreting L-band VOD in high-biomass tropical forests.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{silva2026groundbased,
  title = {{Ground-based GNSS transmissometry reveals contrasting leaf and stem water dynamics in a central Amazon rainforest}},
  author = {Harley Bravos Da Silva and Adriano Lima and Regison Oliveira and Bruno Gimenez and Kyeungwoo Cho and Jingfeng Wang and Andreas Colliander and Jeffrey Chambers and Xiangtao Xu and Hillary S Jenkins and Christian Frankenberg and Niro Higuchi and Robinson Negron-Juarez},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aeb4cb},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb4cb},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Ground-based GNSS transmissometry reveals contrasting leaf and stem water dynamics in a central Amazon rainforest
AU  - Harley Bravos Da Silva
AU  - Adriano Lima
AU  - Regison Oliveira
AU  - Bruno Gimenez
AU  - Kyeungwoo Cho
AU  - Jingfeng Wang
AU  - Andreas Colliander
AU  - Jeffrey Chambers
AU  - Xiangtao Xu
AU  - Hillary S Jenkins
AU  - Christian Frankenberg
AU  - Niro Higuchi
AU  - Robinson Negron-Juarez
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/15
JO  - Environmental Research Letters
DO  - 10.1088/1748-9326/aeb4cb
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aeb4cb
AB  - Vegetation optical depth (VOD) is widely used to monitor vegetation water dynamics, yet its interpretation in dense tropical forests remains uncertain because independent observations of water partitioning among vegetation compartments are scarce. Here, we compare Global Navigation Satellite System transmissometry-derived VOD (GNSS-T VOD) with independent measurements of leaf, stem, and soil water in an old-growth Central Amazon rainforest. Stem water storage dominated total vegetation water storage and closely tracked seasonal soil moisture. In contrast, GNSS-T VOD exhibited opposing relationships with vegetation water compartments, being positively associated with leaf water storage (r = 0.65, p = 0.16) but negatively correlated with stem water storage and total vegetation water storage (both r = −0.83, p < 0.05). These contrasting relationships show that temporal variation in GNSS-T VOD cannot be explained by total vegetation water storage alone. Instead, these relationships highlight the importance of water partitioning among vegetation compartments when interpreting GNSS-T VOD. These observations provide a benchmark for interpreting L-band VOD in high-biomass tropical forests.
SN  - 1748-9326
ER  -