Surfacing the Need for Groundwater Ecological Research in Polar Regions

Out of all raw natural resources, groundwater is among the most exploited by humans.We have entered an era of global water bankruptcy, with many regions consuming water resources beyond their capacity for natural renewal.As groundwater extraction escalates, we are not only depleting the vastest global unfrozen freshwater reservoir but also compromising the integrity of groundwater (and groundwater-dependent) ecosystems and aggravating climate change-related effects such as salinization and desertification.Aiming to widen our understanding on the role of groundwaters within the global water cycle and provide management guidelines at local and regional scale, recent ecological research has expanded our mechanistic understanding of the functioning of subterranean aquatic ecosystems, bringing new insights into the role and services provided by groundwater biota.Nonetheless, groundwater biology studies are still chronically affected by a widespread lack of data for most of the world (except for some well-studied "Western" countries), hindering effective empirically based conservation plans beyond well-documented biodiversity hotspots.