‘Ghost’ trees spell trouble for global environment

PORT REPUBLIC, New Jersey — They’re called “ghost forests” — dead trees along vast swaths of coastline invaded by rising seas, something scientists call one of the most visible markers of climate change.

The process has occurred naturally for thousands of years, but it has accelerated in recent decades as polar ice melts and raises sea levels, scientists say, pushing salt water farther inland and killing trees in what used to be thriving freshwater plains.

Efforts are underway worldwide to determine exactly how quickly the creation of ghost forests is increasing. But scientists agree the startling sight of dead trees in oncehealthy areas is an easy-tograsp example of the consequences of climate change.

“I think ghost forests are the most obvious indicator of climate change anywhere on the Eastern coast of the US,” said Matthew Kirwan, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who is studying ghost forests in his state and Maryland. “It was dry, usable land 50 years ago; now it’s marshes with dead stumps and dead trees.”

It is happening around the world, but researchers say new ghost forests are particularly apparent in North America, with salt-killed trees stretching from Canada down the East Coast, around Florida and over to Texas.

The intruding salt water changes coastal ecosystems, creating marshes where forests used to be. This has numerous effects on the environment, though many scientists caution against viewing them in terms of “good” or “bad”. What benefits one species or ecosystem might harm another one, they say.

The ghost forest acceleration comes as scientists on Monday said that world temperatures are likely to rise by more than 2 C this century, surpassing a “tipping point” that a global climate deal aims to avert.

VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS DAVID WALTERS An aerial photograph shows a narrow band of brown pine trees that were killed by tidal flooding near Yorktown, Virginia. Rising sea levels are killing trees along vast swaths of the North American coast by inundating them in salt water.