People living in the great expanses of flat, dry regions of the world that lack natural freshwater lakes depend on episodic rainstorms to replenish the groundwater they use for domestic and agricultural purposes. New work by  Professors Dennis McLaughlin and Dara Entekhabi and recent graduate Gene-Hua Crystal Ng shows that even minor variations in precipitation caused by climate change could cause major, often counterintuitive changes to fragile groundwater supplies in these areas. Read a news story.