Ghost Forests: There’s Nothing Scarier Than Climate Change
Tags: Nature, Climate Change, Activism, Environment, Environmental Issues

What are ghost forests?

A ghost forest can be succinctly defined as the watery remains of what was once a thriving forest. Typical features include protruding dead trees, flooded areas and a general lack of greenery.

A striking indicator

Much like a melting glacier, ghost forests are a real and visual representation of the effects of climate change. Whereas dwindling glaciers represent the melting of our ice caps, ghosts forests represent the places where verdant forests used to flourish. Unlike the glaciers, however, some communities have a front seat view to rising sea levels.

Much like a melting glacier, ghost forests are a real and visual representation of the effects of climate change.

The problem is urgent; today, ghost forests are forming at a faster rate than ever before. Forest retreat rates are approximately three times larger than prior to the Industrial Revolution. This is a significant marker as it is often thought of as the period when human-caused climate change really took off, leading to our current climate crisis.

How are they formed?

There are four contributors to the creation of ghost forests.

1. Sea level changes

Sea level rises often cause coastal regions to become flooded. As this happens, seawater takes over the freshwater trees need to live. The seawater poisons living trees, thus creating the ghostly remains of a forest.

2. Tectonic activity

Sometimes, as tectonic plates attempt to slide past one another they become stuck and locked in place for centuries while tension builds. This tension then forms into a vertical uplift of mountains on the coast, a phenomenon termed an ‘orogenic uplift’. Hundreds of years later, the tension is released. As this happens, the coastline drops down to below sea level making it susceptible to tides. Areas of the coastline can be inundated with sea water, creating ghost forests.

3. Tsunamis

Similarly, tsunamis resulting from large earthquakes can cause the coastline to be inundated. Tsunamis also push seawater inland, leading to large scale forest die-off.

4. Climate change

Climate change facilitates ghost forests through the three aforementioned channels and more.

Firstly, climate change worsens the problem of rising sea levels. Currently, data shows water is rising by up to 5mm every year in some locations. For reference, the global average is 3.1mm.

Likewise, climate change increases the frequency of natural disasters and aggressive, powerful storms. These contribute to the issue by pushing seawater inland, thus killing the trees.

Lastly, global warming is resulting in increasing activity from damaging species. Most prominently, scientists have seen spikes in mountain pine beetles, or Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins. These problematic critters spend most of their lives as larvae feeding on and attacking the inner bark of pine trees. Eventually, the trees die. As such, climate change and subsequently mountain pine beetle increases can mean the demise for Whitebark and other pines.

USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection. Photo by J.M. Miller, 6 August 1924. Via archive.org.

It is worth noting that when forests die out, marsh takes over. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, marshland is associated with many environmental benefits including acting as a carbon sink by sequestering and storing more carbon than the trees they replace. Unfortunately, marshland, like forests, can also be submerged. This is problematic as it results in a net loss of land and more carbon in the atmosphere.

Nevertheless, the most pressing problem isn’t the transition from forest into marsh — it’s how ghost forests and rising sea levels affect coastal communities.