Abstract
The 2023–2024 drought reduced water availability worldwide, yet its impacts on soil moisture remain unknown in ungauged Andean catchments. Therefore, we assessed drought-induced soil moisture changes across seven catchments in Ecuador using a multivariable approach that integrates Sentinel-1 A SAR interferometry (InSAR)-derived vertical ground displacement as a relative indicator for soil moisture, soil moisture anomalies, ERA5 precipitation, and land cover data. Ground subsidence indicated a progressive decline in soil moisture. The magnitude of decline varied with elevation and land cover, with the lowest impacts in the uplands (4000–4400 m a.s.l) covered by páramo vegetation (tussock grass and cushion plants) and the strongest impacts in the lowlands (≤ 3400 m a.s.l) covered by grazing pastures. These patterns reflect climatic and hydrologic gradients, better-preserved upland soils and vegetation, soil degradation, and lower water-use efficiency in lowland pastures. InSAR has potential to monitor soil moisture during hydrological drought in the Andean data-scarce catchments, and reveal contrasting drought resilience among land covers, which provide evidence towards improved natural resources management.
Acknowledgements
This study is an outcome of the Programa Doctoral en Recursos Naturales Renovables offered by Universidad de Cuenca and Universidad del Azuay. The project has also received funds from the DOWES project funded by The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Sweden), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (United Kingdom), Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (Italy), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM/Brazil), Secretaria de Estado de Desenvolvimento Econômico, Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (SEDECTI/Brazil) and the Amazonas State Government (Brazil)— call N. 026/2023 WATER4ALL 2023, and the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under the 2023 Joint Transnational Call of the European Partnership Water4All (Grant Agreement n° 101060874)”.
Funding
PM-D and AO-S acknowledge Vicerrectorado de Investigación of Universidad del Azuay for funding the research project 2022-0019 ‘The hydrological role of the lakes in the páramo’. PM-D and AO-S acknowledge CELEC for funding the research project 2025-0089 ‘Servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos en el páramo: conectividad hidrológica de suelos, lagunas y ríos y cuantificación de servicios ecosistémicos’. The contribution of FJ was funded by the Project DOWES ‘Disclosing the Overlooked Wetlandscape Ecosystem Services’ of the Water4All 2023 Joint Transnational Call on Aquatic Ecosystem Services, handled by FORMAS with Project number 2024 − 00999. A-OS and PC acknowledge VLIR-UOS and the Universities and institutions part of the SWACH project ‘Sustainable Water Management Under Climate Change in Southern Ecuador’.
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Montenegro-Díaz, P., Jaramillo, F., Crespo, P. et al. Drought-induced soil moisture declines in Andean catchments inferred from satellite-derived ground displacement.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-68419-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-68419-4
Keywords
- Synthetic aperture radar
- Soil water content
- Mountain
- Alpine
- Grassland
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