When we think of a forest, we imagine a group of trees, shrubs and other plants that coexist with a series of animals and insects in a natural environment. But due to rising temperatures and reduced rainfall, all this life is being lost, turning a beautiful landscape into a ghost forest.
Plants that once looked healthy now begin to die little by little from heat stress and lack of fresh water.
Ghost forests have always existed, but in recent decades this phenomenon has accelerated. As the ice at the Poles melts as a result of global warming, the sea level rises and puts the lives of a wide variety of plants and animals that live along the coasts at risk. The salt water enters further inland, killing the plant beings that were used to fresh water; Without food or protection, the fauna goes in search of a better place.
This, while happening all over the world, is particularly worrisome in North America, where there are hundreds of thousands of hectares with trees killed by the arrival of salt water, from Canada to Florida.
Thus, changes occur in the ecosystem. Where once there were forests, now there are swamps, which affects the environment in different ways, for example: migratory birds that depend on forests see their habitat reduced, but as the water becomes saltier, the place becomes more productive as aquatic animals begin to arrive own of the seas.
The increasing appearance of these forests are clear evidence that climate change is a real phenomenon that we must pay attention to in order to take the necessary measures to prevent disaster.