Study of vadose zone in northern part of Moravian Karst

This study is focused on the flow through the uppermost part of the unsaturated zone in karstified areas. The information about distribution of transit times and chemical reactions taking place in the unsaturated zone is based on isotopic and chemical composition of cave dripwaters, precipitations and water caught by gravitation lysimeters. The water balance was calculated using measurements of intensity of dripwaters and amounts of water caught by lysimeters and rain gauges. The velocity of a hydraulic shockwave between monitored objects was also estimated according to the delay between significant precipitation event and dripwater intensity increase. The field study took place in the Němcova 1 cave in the northern part of Moravian Karst, near the village Suchdol. It was carried out during the hydrological year 2010/2011. The cave is about 13 m under the surface. The information about composition of overlaying rock above the cave was obtained using geoelectrical and electromagnetic measurements. Studied geological environment is built of 0.5 - 1.5 m of soil, 0.5 - 3.5 m of epikarst and a layer of massive limestone as thick as 10 m. About 70 to 90 % of dripwaters have residence time over 4 years. The distribution of transit time of younger water can be described using the exponencial model (well..