Weisbrod, N., Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Nachshon, U., Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Pillersdorf, M., Department of Environmental Hydrology and Microbiology, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Dragila, M.I., Department of Crop. and Soil Sciences, Oregon State University, United States

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. © 2009 Taylor & Francis Group.