Climate Change Viscously Impacting South-Eastern Australia

For the past decade the earth has undergone extreme climatic changes producing many serious repercussions on the earth’s biosphere. Specifically, South-eastern Australia experienced many ramifications. The Australian Journal of Earth Science explores the effects anthropogenic climate change has taken upon the continent of Australia.

One of the major problems that the journal explains is that “there have been significant decreases in precipitation over much of the eastern and southern parts of Australia”. This is a grave concern because the ground water has recently become a main source for domestic water supply, irrigation, and industrial purposes. Not only is climate change taking a toll on the groundwater in Australia, but it is also threatening the region with pollution and the changes made to the land for incatchments.

It is predicted that rainfall will continue to decline. The journal states this as “a documented decrease over recent decades in the number of rain-bearing cyclonic systems to the south of Australia”. This problem is suspected to cause “extreme changes to recharge rates and to the hydrogeological systems” in the near future. This change in the recharge rate will slow down the amount of ground water that will be replenishing over time; in turn, negatively affecting the hydrogeological systems of South-eastern Australia. If rainfall sufficiently decreases in South Australia, the recharge will increase due to the vegetation scarcity, causing the groundwater to become less saline. The decreased salinity will result in a deficiency of the water.

Although it seems that climate change will continue to negatively impact the hydrogeology of Australia, it is uncertain if these effects may be in fact counteracted by the other changes that climate change has caused. For example, the journal suggests that it is possible that vegetative response to climate change may increase groundwater levels. “Decrease in vegetation cover due to increasing aridity, for example, net transpiration rates will be reduced, and net recharge as a percentage of rainfall may increase.” Such an effect will also increase absolute charge. Though, this is merely a suggestion made in the journal and no real evidence has been collected to support it.

From the data collected, as presented within the journal, there is clear and sufficient evidence that proves the negative impact that anthropogenic climate change has on the South-Eastern part of Australia. However, for the reason that there is still uncertainty of the future’s outcome of Australia’s groundwater, more research is needed to be done to determine all the long-term effects.


Cited Works:
Cartwright, I., and Simmond, I. “Impact of changing climate and land use on the hydrogeology of southeast Australia.” Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 55 (2008): 1009–1021. Web. 14 Oct. 2010