Interactive Infographic: How Salt Transforms Coastal Forests

Rising sea levels are pushing salty tides and storm surges farther inland, leading to the forest death and a shift from forested habitats to marsh.

| 3 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
3:00
Share

ABOVE: © KERRY HYNDMAN

Sea level rise is affecting a wide range of ecosystems, from forested wetland to farmland. As salty water pushes farther inland, with the help of humanmade structures such canals, ditches, and tide gates, trees die and farmland floods, allowing marshy reed species to move in. Forests can shift farther inland but as they do, they will eventually encounter towns, cities, and other communities that prevent their further migration. Click on the circles below to learn more about what happens to these ecosystems as sea levels rise.

Most trees are extremely sensitive to salt, from the roots, which struggle to take up water from salty soils, to the trunk, branches, and leaves, where high concentrations of salt ions hinder plants’ cellular processes.

Read the full story.

Ashley Yeager is an associate editor at The Scientist. Email her at ayeager@the-scientist.com.

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

Published In

March 2020

Rising Seas, Dead Trees

Ghost forests are a warning about climate change

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo
New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

New Frontiers in Vaccine Development

Sino

Products

Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio
Inventia Life Science

Inventia Life Science Launches RASTRUM™ Allegro to Revolutionize High-Throughput 3D Cell Culture for Drug Discovery and Disease Research

An illustration of differently shaped viruses.

Detecting Novel Viruses Using a Comprehensive Enrichment Panel

Twist Bio