Up and down the mid-Atlantic coast, sea levels are rising rapidly, creating stands of dead trees — often bleached, sometimes blackened — known as ghost forests. But in 2010, she learned about global warming and sea level rise, she said. Erosion of marshes and riverbanks has also accelerated, revealing buried cedar stumps from prehistoric ghost forests. “It’s not just rising sea level” that creates ghost forests, Dr. Tallie said, but periods of dryness. That means wildfires, combined with intensified dry spells and amplified saltwater intrusion may, together, accelerate the formation of ghost forests independently of sea level rise.

Source: New York Times October 08, 2019 09:11 UTC