biostudies-literatureMeusburger KSwiss National Science Foundation5928-5944https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC9546155biostudies-literatureUnknown28(20)Central Europe has been experiencing unprecedented droughts during the last decades, stressing the decrease in tree water availability. However, the assessment of physiological drought stress is challenging, and feedback between soil and vegetation is often omitted because of scarce belowground data. Here we aimed to model Swiss forests' water availability during the 2015 and 2018 droughts by implementing the mechanistic soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transport (SVAT) model LWF-Brook90 taking advantage of regionalized depth-resolved soil information. We calibrated the model against soil matric potential data measured from 2014 to 2018 at 44 sites along a Swiss climatic and edaphic drought gradient. Swiss forest soils' storage capacity of plant-available water ranged from 53 mm to 341 mm, with Global change biologySoil-plant interactions modulated water availability of Swiss forests during the 2015 and 2018 droughts.PMC954615520F120_198227185093Brun PPuhlmann HTrotsiuk VGharun MWalthert LMeusburger KSchmidt-Walter PThimonier AZimmermann SBaltensweiler ABernhard FPsomas AHabel RHagedorn FWaldner PKochli RfalseSoil-plant interactions modulated water availability of Swiss forests during the 2015 and 2018 droughts.Central Europe has been experiencing unprecedented droughts during the last decades, stressing the decrease in tree water availability. However, the assessment of physiological drought stress is challenging, and feedback between soil and vegetation is often omitted because of scarce belowground data. Here we aimed to model Swiss forests' water availability during the 2015 and 2018 droughts by implementing the mechanistic soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transport (SVAT) model LWF-Brook90 taking advantage of regionalized depth-resolved soil information. We calibrated the model against soil matric potential data measured from 2014 to 2018 at 44 sites along a Swiss climatic and edaphic drought gradient. Swiss forest soils' storage capacity of plant-available water ranged from 53 mm to 341 mm, with 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z2022 Oct2025-04-22T01:57:54.68Z2025-04-05T20:09:59.516ZS-EPMC95461553579590110.1111/gcb.16332