Coastal Forest Loss Speeds Up: Albemarle Peninsula trees retreat 21%; ghost forests spread faster

North Carolina’s coastal forests are retreating at a faster pace, with a new study finding that more than one-fifth of forest cover across part of the state’s coastal plain disappeared between 1985 and 2021. The findings, published in PLOS One and reported by North Carolina State University and Phys.org, show that forest loss accelerated significantly after 2010. Researchers say rising sea levels, increasing salinity and the landscape’s proximity to coastal channels are driving much of the change. The study focused on the Albemarle Peninsula, a low-lying area that includes private land as well as protected areas such as Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Researchers found that forest cover fell from about 304,729 hectares in 1985 to 269,970 hectares in 2021. That represents a net decline of 21.1%, or approximately 64,220 hectares. But the change was not evenly distributed over the 36-year period. Between 2010 and 2021, about 23,876 hectares of forest were converted to marsh, shrubs or ghost forest. That was 1.5 times the 16,968 hectares that underwent the same transition between 1985 and 2010.Rising seas are changing the landscapeOne of the clearest signs of the transformation...