Comparative evaluation of five drought models for tracking vegetation moisture content in two mediterranean broadleaf forests

Vegetation water content is a key indicator of plant physiological status and ecosystem functioning, and it plays a critical role in determining vegetation flammability and wildfire dynamics. In Mediterranean environments, moisture content of live fine fuels (LFF)—including shrub vegetation and live foliage—is strongly influenced by meteorological variability and drought, yet field-based datasets that capture local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity remain scarce. This study presents two years of field measurements of moisture content in several fine-fuel species within two forest stands in Tuscany (Italy): a Quercus ilex L. plot and a mixed broadleaved forest. The selected species represent two vegetation groups (shrubs and trees) characterized by marked seasonal and interannual variability typical of Mediterranean ecosystems. Meteorological data from nearby weather stations were collected for each study area and used to compute fuel-moisture indicators, including the Drought Code (DC) from the Canadian