Predicting the impacts of groundwater drawdown on groundwater ecosystems

该项目旨在解决地下水管理的一个关键挑战--了解和预测地下水位下降的影响。过度抽水和地下水位下降是一个全球性问题，但对含水层内存在的生态系统的影响却鲜为人知。该项目将创建世界上第一个基于证据的模型，说明地下水位下降如何影响地下水生态系统中的微生物、无脊椎动物和生态过程，并将展示这种变化对地下水质量和可用性的影响。该模型将能够可靠地预测影响，避免或减轻影响，极大地改善影响地下水的重大发展的规划和实施方式。

This project aims to tackle a critical challenge of groundwater management – to understand and predict the impacts of declining groundwater levels. Over pumping and declining groundwater tables are a global problem, yet the effects on the ecosystems that exist within aquifers are poorly known. This project will create a world first evidence-based model of how lowering water tables affects the microbes, invertebrates (stygofauna) and ecological processes in groundwater ecosystems, and will demonstrate the consequences of such changes to groundwater quality and availability. This model will allow impacts to be reliably forecast and avoided or mitigated, vastly improving how major developments affecting groundwater are planned and implemented.