The Chesapeake Bay takes on a haunted look. According to Knowable magazine, our overheated Earth is helping to turn the region into a graveyard of cedars, pine and several deciduous broadleaf trees.
What happened?
As the world warms and sea levels rise, saltwater is intruding along the world’s coasts and into estuaries. The intrusion of seawater can overtake the freshwater that provides life for evergreen and deciduous trees. It’s happening in the Chesapeake Bay, and it’s not going unnoticed. Scientists have released a report on the impact of salinization on coastal ecosystems.
“The effects of saltwater intrusion on coastal forests and farmland are often understood as sea-level-driven inundation of static terrestrial landscapes in which ecosystems neither adapt to nor influence saltwater intrusion,” according to a study conducted by an international team of scientists. “However, recent observations of tree mortality and reduced crop yields have inspired new process-based research on the hydrological, geomorphological, biological, and anthropogenic mechanisms involved.”
Stephanie Stotts, a forest ecologist at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, and co-author of the Annual Review of Marine Science article, told Knowable magazine: “When these forests died off in large numbers, they were not replaced by native salt marshes … they were actually replaced by reed marshes.”
The Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center describes Phragmites australis (also known as common reed) as “a tall, densely growing perennial herb that can take over large areas, displacing native vegetation and reducing habitat quality for fish and wildlife.”
Trees die slowly; sometimes, it takes decades for them to die. It will be a long time before we see the full consequences of these lifeless forests. “We’re about 50 years behind,” Stotts told Knowable magazine.
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Why are ghost forests important?
Ghost forests are remnants of a once vibrant woodland ecosystem that has been lost to poisoning by saltwater intrusion. In the period before sea levels rose, forests had evolved into swamps. Scientists point out that swamps have some positive attributes. They are home to oysters, clams, shrimp and certain species of birds.
The problem with ghost forests is that they disrupt the carbon cycle. In other words, forests absorb more carbon pollution from the atmosphere than they release. When trees die, they end up producing heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, exacerbating warming.
Live trees can also act as a buffer from storms. Ghost forests increase the vulnerability of coastlines to erosion and storm surges. While extreme weather events have always existed, experts are finding that the human-induced climate crisis has exacerbated these events, putting our communities at greater risk and causing damage to ecosystems.
What measures have been taken to combat seawater erosion?
As the Earth’s overheating causes sea levels to rise, ocean water is eroding the world’s coastlines at an accelerated rate. Moving away from dirty energy and toward renewable energy will help cool our planet and reduce sea level rise.
Scientific research can help illustrate how the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere affects our planet, but it’s also important to spread the word by exploring key climate issues and talking about them with family and friends to raise awareness. The same goes for politicians who support the fight for the future of our planet.
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