Project Title: Effects of sea level rise on maritime forest dieback
Duration: July 2020-July 2021
Funding Source(s): NSF
Lead Investigator: Elizabeth Watson
Affiliation: Drexel University and the Academy of Natural Sciences
Email: elizabeth.b.watson@gmail.com
Project Description: This project will analyze groundwater patterns, salinity, and plant stress using mapping of near-infra spectral indices
to address knowledge gaps in our understanding of the impacts of sea level rise to maritime forests. We are focusing
on understanding the proximate causes of forest dieback by building robust and complementary geospatial datasets
focusing on key hydrologic factors and plant stress indicators. This project also involves study sites in New Jersey
and New York and aims to focus on identifying whether salinity or flooding thresholds exist in terms of driving
forest die-off as well as how local factors such as geology and sediment permeability alter these factors.
