BACKGROUND Most groundwater conservation and management efforts focus on protecting groundwater for drinking water and for other human uses with little understanding or focus on the ecosystems that depend on groundwater. However, groundwater plays an integral role in sustaining certain types of aquatic, terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, and their associated landscapes. Our aim was to illumina...

1. Throughout arid regions of the world, groundwater is extracted for human population centres. In the Great Basin and Range region of the USA, we lack basic information regarding some plant communities detailing the extent to which vegetation is threatened by groundwater extraction. This is particularly true for alkali meadow vegetation, which is restricted to zones of shallow groundwater yet ...

Recently recharged water (defined here as <60 years old) is generally the most vulnerable part of a groundwater resource to nonpoint-source nitrate contamination. Understanding at the appropriate scale the interactions of natural and anthropogenic controlling factors that influence nitrate occurrence in recently recharged groundwater is critical to support best management and policy decisions t...

Korea has been operating groundwater monitoring systems since 1996 as the Groundwater Act enacted in 1994 enforces nationwide monitoring. Currently, there are six main groundwater monitoring networks operated by different government ministries with different purposes: National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN), Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network (GQMN), Seawater Intrusion Monitoring Net...

The groundwater flow system is typical dissipative structure system, and its evolution can be described with system information entropies. The information entropies of groundwater in Shijiazhuang City had been calculated between 1960 and 2005, and the results show that the entropies have a decreasing trend throughout the research period, and they can be divided into our stages based on the grou...

[1] Groundwater pumping has caused excessive groundwater depletion around the world, yet regulating pumping remains a profound challenge. California uses more groundwater than any other U.S. state, and serves as a microcosm of the adverse effects of pumping felt worldwide—land subsidence, impaired water quality, and damaged ecosystems, all against the looming threat of climate change. The state...

For the frangible ecological environment, it is very important to reasonably develop and utilize groundwater resources in Northwest China. Shallow groundwater level is an essential factor related to the eco-environmental problems such as oasis degeneration and land salinification. The lack of groundwater dynamic data is a critical concern for water resources management in the arid region. This ...