Large-scale agriculture is using more groundwater than nature can replenish

Humans in large agricultural regions are over-exploiting underground water, depleting it faster than nature can replenish it, a new study of international aquifer use concludes.

Scientists mapped the "groundwater footprint" of 15 major agricultural regions, Monte Morin of the Los Angeles Times reports. The study, published in the journal Nature, concluded that the global groundwater footprint of agricultural regions was 3.5 times higher than the size of all aquifers combined. (Click on map for larger version)

Lead author and McGill University professor Tom Gleeson said the heavy consumption was "driven by a handful of areas," Morin reports, including the High Plains of the U.S. California's Central Valley had a groundwater footprint larger than its aquifer, but it was almost a third smaller than in the High Plains. About 80 percent of the world's aquifers had a footprint smaller than their size, but the major agricultural regions contributed to a global deficit, Morin reports.