The role of cavities in land-atmosphere interactions

Throughout the past two decades, most studies that explored flow and transport processes through surface-exposed fractures, focused merely on the role of these fractures as fast conduits for water, salts and contaminants during intensive rain events, and flooding or leakage from contamination sources. Conventional approach has assumed that as long as fractures are dry, their role in the hydrological cycle is negligible. This study, however, explores the processes occurring within surface-exposed fractures during the dry season, and shows that their role in hydrological and atmospheric cycles is not negligible.