Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are tightly linked, with direct implications for applied resource management and conservation. It is well known that human land use change and intensification of terrestrial systems can have large impacts on surface freshwater ecosystems. Contrastingly, the study and understanding of such land use impacts on groundwater communities is lagging behind. Both the impact strength of land use on groundwater communities and the spatial extents at which such interlinkages are operating are largely unknown, despite our reliance on groundwater for drinking water extraction as a key ecosystem service. Here, we analyzed groundwater amphipod occurrence from several hundred shallow groundwater aquifers used for drinking water extraction across a region of varying agricultural intensity and human population density in Switzerland. Despite drinking water extraction sites being generally built at locations with expected minimal aboveground impacts on water quality, we found a direct correlation between land use type and intensity within the surrounding catchment area and the locally measured nitrate concentrations, which is a direct proxy for drinking water quality. Furthermore, groundwater amphipods were more likely to be found at sites with higher forest coverage than at sites with higher crop and intensive pasture coverages, clearly indicating a tight connection between aboveground land use and groundwater biodiversity. Our results indicate that land use type effects on groundwater communities are most relevant and pronounced to spatial scales of about 400–1000 m around the groundwater sampling site. Importantly, the here identified spatial scale is 1.2‐ to 3‐fold exceeding the average extent of currently defined groundwater protection zones. We postulate that incorporating an ecosystem perspective into groundwater management strategies is needed for effective protection of groundwater quality and biodiversity.

中文翻译：

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超出当前保护缓冲区的地下水动物群落的陆地土地使用信号


陆地和水生生态系统密切相关，对应用资源管理和保护有直接影响。众所周知，人类土地利用的变化和陆地系统的集约化会对地表淡水生态系统产生巨大影响。相比之下，对此类土地利用对地下水群落影响的研究和理解则滞后。尽管我们依赖地下水作为关键的生态系统服务，但土地利用对地下水群落的影响强度以及这种相互联系运作的空间范围在很大程度上都是未知的。在这里，我们分析了瑞士农业强度和人口密度不同的地区用于饮用水提取的数百个浅层地下水含水层的地下水片足类动物的出现。尽管饮用水提取点通常建在预期地上对水质影响最小的地方，但我们发现周围集水区内的土地使用类型和强度与当地测量的硝酸盐浓度之间存在直接相关性，这是饮用水质量的直接代表。此外，与作物和密集牧场覆盖率较高的地点相比，在森林覆盖率较高的地点更有可能发现地下水片足类动物，这清楚地表明地上土地利用与地下水生物多样性之间存在紧密联系。我们的结果表明，土地利用类型对地下水群落的影响与地下水采样点周围约 400-1000 m 的空间尺度最相关且最明显。重要的是，这里确定的空间尺度比目前定义的地下水保护区的平均范围高出 1.2 到 3 倍。 我们假设，为了有效保护地下水质量和生物多样性，需要将生态系统视角纳入地下水管理战略。