Groundwater plays a major role in human adaptation and ecological sustainability against climate variability by providing global water and food security. In the Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna aquifers (IGBM), groundwater abstraction has been reported to be one of the primary contributors to groundwater storage variability. However, there is still a lack of understanding on the relative influence of climate and abstraction on groundwater. Data-guided statistical studies are reported to be crucial in understanding the human-natural complex system. Here, we attributed the long-term (1985–2015) impact of local-precipitation, global-climate cycles, and human influence on multi-depth groundwater levels (n=6753) in the IGBM using lag correlation analysis, wavelet coherence analysis, and regression-based dominance analysis. Our findings highlight the variable patterns of phase lags observed between multi-depth groundwater levels and precipitation depending on the different nature of climatic and anthropogenic drivers in different parts of the basin. We observed intuitive responses, i.e., rapid response in shallow groundwater and relatively delayed responses to the global climate patterns with increasing depth. However, in the most exploited areas, the hydrological processes governing the groundwater recharge are overwhelmed by unsustainable groundwater abstraction, thus decoupling the hydro-climatic continuum. Our results also suggest groundwater abstraction to be the dominant influence in most of the basin, particularly at the greater depth of the aquifer, thus highlighting the importance of understanding multi-depth groundwater dynamics for future groundwater management and policy interventions.

地下水通过提供全球水和粮食安全，在人类适应气候变化和生态可持续性方面发挥着重要作用。在印度河-甘格斯-布拉马普特拉-梅格纳蓄水层（IGBM）中，地下水抽取被认为是造成地下水储量变化的主要因素之一。但是，对于气候和取水对地下水的相对影响仍然缺乏了解。据报道，以数据为指导的统计研究对于理解人与自然的复杂系统至关重要。在这里，我们将局部降水，全球气候周期以及人类对多深度地下水位的影响（1985年至2015年）的长期影响归因于n = 6753）在IGBM中使用滞后相关分析，小波相干分析和基于回归的优势分析。我们的发现强调了根据盆地不同地区气候和人为驱动因素的不同性质，在多深度地下水位和降水之间观察到的相位滞后的变化模式。我们观察到直观的响应，即在浅层地下水中的快速响应以及随着深度增加而对全球气候模式的响应相对延迟。然而，在开采最多的地区，控制地下水补给的水文过程因不可持续的地下水抽取而被淹没，从而使水文气候连续体脱钩。我们的研究结果还表明，在大多数流域，地下水抽取是主要影响因素，