Groundwater recharge replenishes aquifers and enables them to sustain irrigated agriculture and household water access, but the sensitivity of recharge to climate change remains unclear. Our analysis of global recharge rates demonstrates their sensitivity to climatic conditions, implying that amplified and nonlinear impacts of climate change on recharge rates are likely.
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References
Wada, Y. et al. Global depletion of groundwater resources. Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, L20402 (2010). This paper provides a global overview of groundwater depletion.
Taylor, R. G. et al. Ground water and climate change. Nat. Clim. Change 3, 322–329 (2013). A review summarizing the available research assessing the impacts of climate on groundwater.
Reinecke, R. et al. Uncertainty of simulated groundwater recharge at different global warming levels: a global-scale multi-model ensemble study. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 25, 787–810 (2021). This paper investigates uncertainties in groundwater recharge projections.
Moeck, C. et al. A global-scale dataset of direct natural groundwater recharge rates: a review of variables, processes and relationships. Sci. Total Environ. 717, 137042 (2020). This paper reports the recharge dataset on which our empirical model is based.
Berghuijs, W. R. et al. Global recharge data set indicates strengthened groundwater connection to surface fluxes. Geophys. Res. Lett. 49, e2022GL099010 (2022). This paper reports the climate–recharge relationship that provides the foundation of our study.
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This is a summary of: Berghuijs, W. R. et al. Groundwater recharge is sensitive to changing long-term aridity. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01953-z (2024).
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An amplified groundwater recharge response to climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. 14, 318–319 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01955-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01955-x
