Measuring the Emergency of "Ghost Forests" From 1986 to 2016 and Their Enviro-Cultural Impacts on the Communities of Down East, North Carolina, USA

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  • October 17, 2023
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  • As sea level rises and severe precipitation increases, water encroaches further inland, bringing saltwater intrusion with it. As a result, younger trees and germinants die off first, stopping the regeneration of the following tree population. Older trees die off next, giving way to the emergence of “ghost forests” that are often a key indicator of the transition point between healthy trees and migrating salt marshes and a key indicator of underlying climate change threats to the region.. In this paper, the impacts of ghost forests are studied in Down East, a culturally-rich peninsula of thirteen communities spread throughout the North Carolinian marshes that share a common identity in living at the water’s edge. GIS analysis of the area was conducted using Landsat imagery of Carteret County, NC and the Down East communities, calculating NDVI value band math to find a change in land coverage and greenness values over time from 1986 to 2016 for the overall county area, which were then reclassified and extrapolated in order to see changes in county forests as this rapid deforestation phenomenon occurs. The results of the analysis suggest that there are growing developments of ghost forests around the Otway, Smyrna, and Gloucester communities, which stand as indicators of greater issues of saltwater intrusion and climate change as a whole.
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  • In Copyright
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  • Bachelor of Science
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  • 2023
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  • English

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