{"id":121335,"date":"2021-04-08T11:23:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T18:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/something-is-killing-trees-creating-ghost-forests-along-the-atlantic-coast"},"modified":"2021-04-08T11:23:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T18:23:12","slug":"something-is-killing-trees-creating-ghost-forests-along-the-atlantic-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/something-is-killing-trees-creating-ghost-forests-along-the-atlantic-coast","title":{"rendered":"Something Is Killing Trees, Creating \u2018Ghost Forests\u2019 Along The Atlantic Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/something-is-killing-trees-creating-ghost-forests-along-the-atlantic-coast2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Seawater is raising salt levels in coastal woodlands along the entire Atlantic Coastal Plain, from Maine to Florida. Huge swaths of contiguous forest are dying. They\u2019re now known in the scientific community as \u201cghost forests.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/alligator_river\/\">Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>, I slog through knee-deep water on a section of trail that is completely submerged. Permanent flooding has become commonplace on this low-lying peninsula, nestled behind North Carolina\u2019s Outer Banks. The trees growing in the water are small and stunted. Many are dead.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout coastal North Carolina, evidence of forest die-off is everywhere. Nearly every roadside ditch I pass while driving around the region is lined with dead or dying trees.<\/p>\n<p>As an <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=uHGlqtEAAAAJ&hl=en\">ecologist studying wetland response to sea level rise<\/a>, I know this flooding is evidence that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"climate change\">climate change<\/a> is altering landscapes along the Atlantic coast. It\u2019s emblematic of environmental changes that also threaten wildlife, ecosystems, and local farms and forestry businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seawater is raising salt levels in coastal woodlands along the entire Atlantic Coastal Plain, from Maine to Florida. Huge swaths of contiguous forest are dying. They\u2019re now known in the scientific community as \u201cghost forests.\u201d Trekking out to my research sites near North Carolina\u2019s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, I slog through knee-deep water on [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,493,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-climatology","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}