Chesapeake Bay Journal: “Salt Patches, a Product of Rising Seas, Are Spreading Rapidly on the Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore”
A peer-reviewed article coauthored by RFF Senior Fellow Becky Epanchin-Niell is the subject of an article about saltwater intrusion in the Chesapeake region.
Climate change is claiming farmland at “an alarmingly high rate” in one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most productive agricultural regions, inflicting tens of millions of dollars in economic damage, a team of scientists says in a new study.
Their research spotlights a pernicious side effect of sea level rise: the salt left behind from water washed onto land after storms or unusually high tides. The resulting “salt patches,” supercharged by evaporation, can poison large swaths of cropland, reducing yields and farm profits.
