Unraveling the causal influences of drought and crop production on groundwater levels across the contiguous United States.

Nitin K Singh, Sheila M Saia, Ruchi Bhattacharya, Hoori Ajami, David M Borrok

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in PNAS nexus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Physiological and Yield Responses of Peanut (Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Nitin K SinghDepartment of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8495-1908

Sheila M SaiaCenter for Ecological Analytics and Modeling, Tetra Tech, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27703, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-0306

Ruchi BhattacharyaBiological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5657-9603

Hoori AjamiDepartment of Environmental Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6883-7630

David M BorrokCollege of Engineering and Computing, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4384-6973

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Groundwater depletion in agricultural-dominated regions is attributed to climate and irrigation withdrawals that support crop production. However, despite decades of effort, knowledge gaps remain in understanding the relative influence of drought and crop production on groundwater levels at the continental scale. Here, utilizing empirical observations, we simultaneously track how long-term trajectories of groundwater levels, crop production of seven crops, and drought have evolved over time, and then integrate these observations with a causality-based attribution framework to unravel the relative impact of drought and crop production on groundwater levels across the contiguous United States (CONUS). We find a dominant pattern of decreases in groundwater levels with increases (25-61%) or no change (1-15%) in crop production across the CONUS. We estimate a significant (

Indexed as

causality modelingdroughtEnvironmental Sciences (Physical Sciences and Engineering)food securitygroundwater declinewater sustainability

Identifiers

PMID40337290

DOI10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf129

PMCPMC12056729

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.