News Climate Earth’s landmasses lost trillions of tons of water this century Scientists link the sharp decline with an increase in global drought and sea level rise A man walks across the dry bed of Lake Ahmad Sar in India in 2015. The total amount of water in Earth’s lakes, rivers and soils has drastically dropped since the turn of the century, a new study finds. The primary culprit: rising global temperatures. SAM PANTHAKY/AFP via Getty Images By Carolyn Gramling 8 seconds ago Earth’s landmasses are holding onto a lot less water than they used to — and this loss is not just due to melting ice sheets. Terrestrial water storage, which includes water in underground aquifers, lakes, rivers and the tiny pore spaces within soil, declined by trillions of metric tons in the early 21st century, researchers report in the March 28 Science. This sharp decrease in freshwater stores is driven by rising temperatures on land and in the oceans, which in turn are linked to an increased global incidence of drought. And given the projected warming of the planet, this trend isn’t likely to change any time soon, say geophysicist Ki-Weon Seo of Seoul National University and colleagues. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.