SEA LEVEL RISE IS SWALLOWING MID-ATLANTIC FARMLAND FASTER THAN EXPECTED, STUDY FINDS

WILLIAMSBURG, Va., May 19 -- William and Mary issued the following news release:

The following story originally appeared on the website for W&M's Batten School & VIMS. - Ed.

Ghost forests, the cemetery-like groupings of dead trees killed by saltwater intrusion, have become haunting symbols of sea level rise overtaking land along the Mid-Atlantic coast. But a new study inNature Sustainabilityled by William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS points to even more dramatic land losses in the region's coastal farmlands, where the rate of marsh encroachment is happening nearly twice as fast.

Using satellite data spanning decades as well as recent field measurements, the study's authors found that between 1984 and 2022 approximately 25,000 acres of f...