Ghost forests, consisting of dead trees adjacent to marshes, are a striking feature of low-lying coastal and estuarine landscapes, and they represent the migration of coastal ecosystems with relative sea-level rise (RSLR). Although ghost forests have been observed along many coastal margins, rates of ecosystem change and their dependence on RSLR remain poorly constrained. Here, we reconstructed forest retreat rates using sediment coring and historical imagery at five sites along the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States, a hotspot for accelerated RSLR. We found that the elevation of the marsh-forest boundary generally increased with RSLR over the past 2000 yr, and that retreat accelerated concurrently with the late 19^th century acceleration in global sea level. Lateral retreat rates increased through time for most sampling intervals over the past 150 yr, and modern lateral retreat rates are 2 to 14 times faster than pre-industrial rates at all sites. Substantial deviations between RSLR and forest response are consistent with previous observations that episodic disturbance facilitates the mortality of adult trees. Nevertheless, our work suggests that RSLR is the primary determinant of coastal forest extent, and that ghost forests represent a direct and prominent visual indicator of climate change.

中文翻译：

---

海平面驱动的沿海森林撤退加速

幽灵森林是由低矮的沿海和河口景观构成的惊人特征，其中包括与沼泽相邻的枯树，它们代表着沿海生态系统随着相对海平面上升（RSLR）的迁移。尽管在许多沿海边缘都观察到了幽灵森林，但生态系统变化的速度及其对RSLR的依赖性仍然受到限制。在这里，我们利用沉积物取芯和历史图像重建了美国中大西洋沿岸五个地点的森林退缩率，这是RSLR加速发展的热点。我们发现，沼泽，森林界的高度一般与RSLR在过去的2000年增加了，而且撤退与已故19同时加速^日世纪全球海平面加速上升。在过去的150年中，大多数采样间隔的横向退缩率随着时间的推移而增加，并且在所有场所，现代横向退缩率比工业化之前的速率快2到14倍。RSLR和森林反应之间的重大偏差与以前的观察结果一致，即偶发性干扰会促进成年树木的死亡。但是，我们的工作表明，RSLR是沿海森林范围的主要决定因素，而幽灵森林则是气候变化的直接且突出的视觉指示。