{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,14]],"date-time":"2026-04-14T02:28:07Z","timestamp":1776133687118,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,4]],"date-time":"2023-04-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1680566400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CNPq\u2014Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00edfico e Tecnol\u00f3gico, Brazil","award":["558135\/2009-9"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["558135\/2009-9"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Hydrology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Soil\u2019s physical and hydrological properties influence the proper modeling, planning, and management of water resources and soil conservation. In areas of vertic soils subjected to wetting and drying cycles, the soil\u2013water\u2013atmosphere interaction is complex and understudied at the field scale, especially in dry tropical regions. This work quantifies and analyzes crack development under field conditions in an expansive soil in a semiarid region for both the dry and rainy seasons. Six 1 m2 plots in an experimental 2.8 ha watershed were photographed and direct measurements were taken of the soil moisture and crack area, depth and volume once a week and after a rainfall event from July 2019 to June 2020. The rainfall was monitored for the entire period and showed a unimodal distribution from December to May after five months without precipitation. The cracks were first sealed in the plots with a predominance of sand and when the soil moisture was above 23% and had an accumulated precipitation of 102 mm. The other plots sealed their cracks when the soil moisture was above 32% and with an accumulated precipitation in the rainy season above 222 mm. The cracks redeveloped after sealing upon a reduction of 4% in the soil moisture. The depth of the cracks showed a better response to climatic variations (total precipitation, soil moisture and continuous dry and wet days). The higher clay content and the higher plasticity index plots developed more cracks with greater depth and volume.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/hydrology10040083","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,4]],"date-time":"2023-04-04T02:30:15Z","timestamp":1680575415000},"page":"83","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Soil\u2013Water\u2013Atmosphere Effects on Soil Crack Characteristics under Field Conditions in a Semiarid Climate"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9544-009X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jacques Carvalho","family":"Ribeiro Filho","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Engenharia agr\u00edcola, Campus do Pici, Universidade Federal do Cear\u00e1, Fortaleza CEP 60455-760, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Eunice Maia de","family":"Andrade","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Conserva\u00e7\u00e3o de Solo e \u00c1gua, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Arido, Rua Francisco Mota, 572, Mossor\u00f3 CEP 59625-900, Brazil"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6774-9348","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Simas","family":"Guerreiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"I3ID, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Pra\u00e7a 9 de Abril, 349, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Helba Ara\u00fajo de Queiroz","family":"Pal\u00e1cio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Federal de Educa\u00e7\u00e3o, Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia do Cear\u00e1, Rodovia Iguatu-V\u00e1rzea Alegre km, 5, Iguatu CEP 63503-790, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9 Bandeira","family":"Brasil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Engenharia agr\u00edcola, Campus do Pici, Universidade Federal do Cear\u00e1, Fortaleza CEP 60455-760, Brazil"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"757","DOI":"10.2136\/sssaj2017.03.0088","article-title":"Morphological approach to quantifying soil cracks: Application to dynamic crack patterns during wetting-drying cycles","volume":"82","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Soil Sci. 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