In semi-arid areas, many ecosystems and activities depend essentially on water availability. In Morocco, the increase of water demands combined to climate change induced decrease of precipitation put a lot of pressure on groundwater. This paper reports the results of updating and evaluation of groundwater datasets with regards to climate scenarios and institutional choices. The continuous imbalance between groundwater extraction and recharge caused a dramatic decline in groundwater levels (20 to 65 m in the past 30 years). Additionally, Morocco suffers from the degradation in groundwater quality due to seawater intrusion, nitrate pollution and natural salinity changes. Climate data analysis and scenarios predict that temperatures will increase by 2 to 4 °C and precipitation will decrease by 53% in all catchments over this century. Consequently, surface water availability will drastically decrease, which will lead to more extensive use of groundwater. Without appropriate measures, this situation will jeopardize water security in Morocco. In this paper, we zoom on the case the Souss-Massa basin, where management plans (artificial recharge, seawater desalination, and wastewater reuse) have been adopted to restore groundwater imbalance or, at least, mitigate the recorded deficits. These plans may save water for future generations and sustain crop production.
In this study, we present a Holocene rainfall index based on three high‐resolution speleothem records from the Western Mediterranean, a region under the influence of the westerly winds belt modulated by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). On centennial to millennial timescales, we show that the North Atlantic ice‐rafting events were likely associated with negative NAO‐like conditions during the Early Holocene and the Late Holocene. However, our data reveal that this is not clearly the case for the mid‐Holocene ice‐rafting events, during which we also show evidence of positive NAO‐like patterns from other paleo‐oceanographic and paleo‐atmospheric data. Hence, contradictory mechanisms involving prolonged periods of both north and south shifts of the westerly winds belt (resembling positive and negative NAO‐like patterns) might at least partially trigger or amplify the ice‐rafting events and the slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.
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