Eerie ghost forests ‘poison’ every thing that enters – and so they’re in all places

The US government is now investigating “ghost forests“. Also know as eerie landscapes of dead trees that are a common sight along North America’s east coast, recent research has found these haunting environments harbour small organisms that intriguingly play a role in climate change.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) describes them as “the watery remains of a once verdant woodland”. As global warming causes sea levels to rise, seawater increasingly encroaches on land, according to NOAA’s Ocean Service.

The service said: “Invading seawater moves up and replaces the fresh water that trees need to survive along the world’s beaches and estuaries. A haunting ghost forest of dead and dying timber is left behind when the saline water gradually poisons living trees.”

NOAA explained the decaying trees of a ghost forest, still standing in or near brackish water, look like enormous greying pillars jutting out into the air. From Maine to Miami, “ghost forests” can be seen receding back along the Gulf of Mexico. Trees stripped of their bark and leaves are reduced to slender skeletons.

Matt Kirwan, an associate professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said: “I’ve seen palm tree ghost forests in Florida and red spruce ghost forests in Canada. They all share a similar origin.”

Scientists are delving deep into trees to suss out their role in contributing to greenhouse gases that heat up the planet.

A recent drilling study has unearthed that standing dead trees in these ghost forests are home to microscopic organisms which transform the potent methane gas into less harmful carbon dioxide, offering new insights into these mysterious woodlands.

Officials might be pondering how to manage these changing landscapes, and this discovery is key, says the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Ghost forests are creeping up along the Atlantic coast according to USGS, making the eastern seaboard a particular point of interest.

Scientists from the University of South Florida have warned Florida’s Big Bend coastal forest is vanishing at “an unprecedented rate”. In 2012, post-tropical Cyclone Sandy left a ghost forest of white cedar in its wake in New Jersey. Over the last 150 years, nearly 80,000 acres of woodland in the Chesapeake Bay region have transformed into marshland, reports the Mirror US .

According to expert Kirwan, this figure could skyrocket five times by 2100.

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