Global groundwater pumping lowers the flow of water bodies and threatens freshwater and estuarine ecosystems

Groundwater is the earth's largest freshwater resource and is vital for irrigation and global food production. In dry periods farmers pump groundwater to water crops, this is already happening at an unsustainable level in many places -- exceeding the rate at which rain and rivers can refill the groundwater stores. This study seeks to identify where groundwater pumping is affecting stream flows and estimates where and when environmentally critical stream flows -- required to maintain healthy ecosystems -- can no longer be sustained.