{"id":26707,"date":"2024-06-29T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T17:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?p=26707"},"modified":"2024-08-06T11:21:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T15:21:43","slug":"summer-2024-north-carolinas-true-ghost-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/summer-2024-north-carolinas-true-ghost-story\/","title":{"rendered":"NC\u2019s True Ghost Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
\"image:<\/a>
Credit: NCSU Photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new study is using satellite imagery to predict the next \u201cghost forests.\u201d <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina hosts a variety of ghost stories, from Blackbeard\u2019s spirit searching for his severed head along the Outer Banks to UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s Horace Williams returning to campus from beyond the grave to haunt Caldwell Hall. Although the veracity of these accounts is dubious, there is more than enough evidence to support one particular North Carolina ghost story: the eerie remains of once-flourishing forests along the Atlantic Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These \u201cghost forests\u201d consist of large areas of dead trees, in varying degrees of decomposition, standing in swampy, brackish environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many climate-induced factors, including natural disasters of increased severity and accelerating sea level rise, have led to saltwater intrusion along the coast. The influx of saltwater is exceeding the threshold of trees\u2019 ability to adapt, and as a result, the frequency of ghost forests has been increasing for the past several decades. Former joint North Carolina Sea Grant and NC Space Grant fellow Emily Ury\u2019s 2021 study showed, for instance, that 10% of living forests have become ghost forests after 1985 in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image:<\/a>
Former joint North Carolina Sea Grant and NC Space Grant fellow Emily Ury\u2019s 2021 study showed that 10% of living forests have become ghost forests after 1985 in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Photo credit: Emily Ury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The increase in ghost forests affects the atmosphere. Living plants intake greenhouse gasses, most notably carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere, but ghost forests do not do so to the same degree. Marcelo Ard\u00f3n, a researcher at North Carolina State University, conducted a project which examined whether ghost forests themselves fueled further climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were interested in asking if the dead trees were functioning as straws, facilitating the movement of gasses to the atmosphere, or as corks, keeping the gasses in the soil,\u201d Ard\u00f3n explains in an interview for NC State University\u2019s initiative on sustainability. \u201cThe standing dead trees allowed the movement of some greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ard\u00f3n says standing dead trees also decreased the emissions of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. \u201cThese results suggested that the standing dead trees in ghost forests were functioning as filtered straws.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ard\u00f3n believes that while ghost forests are an indication that climate change is affecting coastal ecosystems now, it might be possible to slow their creation or restore wetlands to protect against further degradation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image:<\/a>
Standing dead trees in ghost forests decrease emissions of methane. Hyde County, NC. Credit: Baxter Miller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How and why do ghost forests form?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Duke University\u2019s Spencer Rhea, a joint fellow with North Carolina Sea Grant and NC Space Grant, is using satellite data to map water salinity, which in turn will predict where ghost forests will occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlooding can kill trees, and salt can kill trees,\u201d Rhea says. \u201cWe designed this project to add another piece of data: the salt concentration of water before these trees die.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhea is studying where saltwater is affecting rivers by focusing on specific changes in color on satellite images. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany freshwater rivers have high amounts of dissolved organic matter, and they are literally black,\u201d he says. \u201cWe see these a lot in North Carolina down on the coast. Oceans are blue and blackwaters are black, and when they mix, it can change the color of the rivers. So, we\u2019re trying to use satellite images to detect saltwater intrusion by looking for this change in color.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhea says that although his project and findings are still in the beginning stages, his background in political science has prompted him to consider how to protect vulnerable forests both locally and nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the issues in coastal Carolina and across the country is drainage canals,\u201d he explains. \u201cPeople have dug canals on the coast to drain wetlands to allow them to farm, so what this did was create a connection between the wetlands and the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This connection worked, he says, when canals only drained water, but with accelerating sea level rise, the canals now allow saltwater to come into the wetlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve thought a lot about,\u201d he says. \u201cHow can we manage canals, or how can we fill canals in, to protect land and disconnect it more from the ocean and restore it to a more natural state?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily Ury on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>‘s ghost forests<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcelo Ard\u00f3n on the spread of ghost forests on the Atlantic coast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruthie Froning<\/strong> is a contributing editor to Coastwatch<\/em> and a science communication intern with North Carolina Sea Grant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FROM THE SUMMER 2024 ISSUE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina hosts a variety of ghost stories, from Blackbeard\u2019s spirit searching for his severed head along the Outer Banks to UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s Horace Williams returning to campus from beyond the grave to haunt Caldwell Hall. Although the veracity of these accounts is dubious, there is more than enough evidence to support one particular North Carolina ghost story: the eerie remains of once-flourishing forests along the Atlantic Coast. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"Ruthie Froning","ncst_show_custom_author":true,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"displayCategoryID\":1546,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"A Tale of Carbon, Salt, and Sea Level Rise<\/strong>\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[591,1547,1546],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-26707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-healthy-ecosystems","category-summer-2024"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":1546,"name":"Summer 2024","slug":"summer-2024","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1547,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":632,"count":13,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNC\u2019s True Ghost Story - Coastwatch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Tale of Carbon, Salt, and Sea Level Rise. 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