Earth’s water cycle is increasingly dictated by humans
March 3 (UPI) -- For the first time, scientists have quantified the influence of humans on surface water storage, a key component of the global water cycle. Most investigations of the impacts of human activities on hydrological patterns are focused on specific watersheds or freshwater bodies, but for the latest study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists zoomed all the way out, adopting a global view. Advertisement The findings revealed the human species as the dominant regulator of surface water storage on Earth. Using surface water level measurements collected by NASA's ICESat-2 satellite altimeter, launched in 2018, scientists compiled a massive, global dataset for seasonal water level variability. The observations, captured by ICESat-2 and organized by the research t...