Ruined crops, salty soil: How rising seas are poisoning North Carolina's farmland
Sarah Kaplan 11 hrs ago
MIDDLETOWN, N.C. The salty patches were small, at first scattered spots where soybeans wouldnt grow, where grass withered and died, exposing expanses of bare, brown earth.
But lately those barren patches have grown. On dry days, the salt precipitates out of the mud and the crystals make the soil sparkle in the sunlight. And on a damp and chilly afternoon in January, the salt makes Dawson Pugh furrow his brow in dismay.
Its been getting worse, the farmer tells East Carolina University hydrologist Alex Manda, who drove out to this corner of coastal North Carolina with a group of graduate students to figure out whats poisoning Pughs land and whether anything can be done to stop it.
Of climate changes many plagues drought, insects, fires, floods saltwater intrusion in particular sounds almost like a biblical curse. Rising seas, sinking earth and extreme weather are conspiring to cause salt from the ocean to contaminate aquifers and turn formerly fertile fields barren. A 2016 study in the journal Science predicted that 9 percent of the U.S. coastline is vulnerable to saltwater intrusion a percentage likely to grow as the world continues to warm. Scientists are just beginning to assess the potential effect on agriculture, Manda said, and its not yet clear how much can be mitigated.
More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/ruined-crops-salty-soil-how-rising-seas-are-poisoning-north-carolinas-farmland/ar-BBUh1la?li=BBnb7Kz