The Conversation - Groundwater’s invisible role in sustaining lakes
Components of a lake’s water balance. (Robertson et al., 2003)
This recent article from The Conversation explores the critical role that groundwater plays in sustaining North America's lakes, with a focus on the Canadian landscape, home to nearly 90% of the continent’s lakes. Lakes are essential for biodiversity and recreation, but they also serve as "sentinels of change," reacting quickly to environmental shifts, making them vital indicators of the impacts of climate change and human activities.
However, Canadian lakes are increasingly under threat from a range of pressures, including pollution, eutrophication, and the over-extraction of groundwater from aquifers that sustain these bodies of water. As a result, multidisciplinary research is now focusing on the role groundwater plays in mediating these stresses and maintaining aquatic ecosystems.
One important component of lake sustainability is the water balance, where inflows like precipitation and tributary flows are counteracted by outflows such as evaporation. Groundwater, which often goes unnoticed, can provide a steady supply of water to lakes. Since lakes are often connected to underground aquifers, understanding these groundwater-lake interactions is crucial, particularly under changing climate conditions.
New research techniques, such as seepage meters and indirect tracers like radon, have been developed to measure groundwater contributions. These tools help quantify how much groundwater enters or exits a lake, even though direct access to underground systems is often limited.
As climate change accelerates, models are increasingly used to predict future interactions between groundwater and lakes. In regions like southern Québec, research shows that temperature and precipitation changes will introduce uncertainties in groundwater recharge, potentially lowering lake levels and increasing stress on water resources.
To address these challenges, policy decisions must be informed by research. Efforts like Canada1Water (C1W) play a crucial role in improving our understanding of water resource sustainability. By integrating research on groundwater systems and climate change, C1W offers a foundation for better water management strategies across Canada.
Click here to read the article at The Conversation
“For a very long time, the North has been viewed as a source of resources — beaver, furs, timber, metals, oil and gas — all to be developed by southern companies, financed by southern banks, for the benefit of distant southern markets. In exchange for this, the North got dispossessed of our lands and resources, our families torn apart [by the residential school program], our culture and language discredited, and our children abused. Not exactly a fair exchange, was it? How about we try something different for a change?”