LBA-ECO ND-02: Soil Water Content from Amazon Rainfall Exclusion Experiment

Tapajos National Forest, Brazil, is the location for this dataset of monthly measured and daily simulated soil volumetric water content (VWC). The data originates from a controlled rainfall exclusion experiment conducted from 1999 to 2001, designed to study the effects of severe water stress on a humid Amazonian forest. It includes separate files for control and treatment plots, as well as outputs from a STELLA model simulating daily water distribution.

Use Cases

• Validating hydrological models based on measured vs. simulated soil moisture data.
• Analyzing the impact of experimental drought on forest soil water dynamics over time.
• Comparing water uptake patterns between control and rainfall-exclusion treatment plots.

Strengths

• Provides both empirical measurements and model simulations for direct comparison.
• Covers a complete multi-year experimental time range from 1999 to 2001.
• Data is associated with a NASA organization and published research (Nepstad 2002, Belk et al. 2007).

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are unspecified, limiting immediate analysis.
• Conflicting last-updated dates (2001 vs. 2026) create uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• License is ambiguously specified as 'other-license-specified', requiring clarification for reuse.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Field measurements from a rainfall exclusion experiment, supplemented by STELLA model simulations.

Time Range

1999-2001

Freshness

2026-04-10 01:44:07.270189 (from datagov, but conflicts with older nasa_earthdata date)

Geography

km 67 Seca Floresta site, Tapajos National Forest, Brazil