NASA Satellite Captures Haunting Growth of ‘Ghost Forests’ in North Carolina

NASA Earth Observatory has delivered on spooky season with satellite images of ghosts ghost forests, that is, as seen from above North Carolina.

The haunting images show the creeping spread of a ghost forest along a stretch of the coast in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The region is covered in bald cypress forests, but over the last two decades some of those trees have become even more bald. As in, they died. The trees lost their bark but remain standing, an eerie reminder of the life that existed not too long before.

Ghost forests occur when large groups of trees are killed, often by saltwater. That’s why many ghost forests are along the coasts, where trees that normally enjoy the freshwater environment of the wetlands can suffer influxes of saltwater, choking them out.

The images below were taken by NASA Landsats 5 and 9 in 2005 and 2024, showing a change in the shape of the forest over nearly 20 years. According to a NASA Earth Observatory release, about 11% of the land in the wildlife refuge became ghost forest between 1985 and 2019. From the air, the creep of the ghost forest’s growth resembled the edge of an avocado slowly going bad, as brown and black inches inland, replacing what was previously a verdant green.

Sea level rise isn’t helping matters; according to the release, the area of North Carolina where the satellite images were taken is experiencing about 0.15 inches (3 to 4 millimeters) of sea level rise per year. It may not sound like much, but it’s three times faster than the global average.

“You can also see the effects of climate change collide with human development in Landsat images like this,” said Emily Bernhardt, an ecologist at Duke University, in the release. “Marshes shift locations over time as sea levels rise, but there’s nowhere for cypress forests to go. They’re already hemmed in by farmland or other development, so these iconic wetlands are getting squeezed and dying off in mass mortality events instead.”

The ghost forest as seen in 2019. Photo: Emily Bernhardt (Duke University)

However, there is not a direct line between climate change and the ghost forest in the wildlife refuge. As noted in the NASA release, a large die-off occurred in 2011 following a drought and Hurricane Irene, which forced salty water inland.

Ghost forests continue to grow across the East Coast, as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as the Carolinas. If the effects of Irene are any indicator, the recent deluge of back-to-back hurricanes in the southeastern United States doesn’t bode well for coastal forests. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but a truly scary thought this Halloween is more coastal ghosts on the horizon.