A portion of the intercepted water can travel from the leaves to the branches and then flow down to the ground via the plant's stem. This phenomenon is called stemflow. Another portion of the precipitation may flow along the edge of the plant canopy to cause canopy drip. Both of the processes described above can increase the concentration of the water added to the soil at the base of the stem and around the edge of the plant's canopy. Rain that falls through the vegetation, without being intercepted, is called throughfall.
Infiltration is the movement of water from precipitation into the soil layer.
Infiltration varies both spatially and temporally due to a number of environmental factors. After a rain, infiltration can create a condition where the soil is completely full of water. The portion that remains is called the field capacity. In the soil, field capacity represents a film of water coating all individual soil particles to a thickness of 0.06 mm. Both of these processes operate at the surface.