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These ghost forests signal the collapse of ecosystems under climate stress.
Snow gums in the Victorian High Country now die en masse after back-to-back bushfires.
Elsewhere, coastal mangroves face a relentless squeeze from rising seas blocked by human barriers.
Along shorelines, skeletal mangrove trunks mark permanent habitat loss.
Such changes threaten water flows, biodiversity, and defences against storms.
Across Australia, warmer conditions favour longicorn beetles that ringbark weakened trees.
In the Torres Strait, the Bramble Cay melomys have vanished from their island home, the first mammal lost primarily to human-driven climate change.
Alpine Ghost Forests Rise
Ridges once cloaked in twisting snow gums now reveal stark white skeletons.
Dead Eucalyptus pauciflora trees create haunting ghost forests across the Victorian High Country.1
Climate change drives more frequent and intense bushfires in these highlands.
Snow gums re-sprout from lignotubers after fire, drawing on stored carbohydrates.
Yet shorter intervals between blazes exhaust these reserves before trees mature.1
Over 90 percent of snow gum habitat burned at least once in the past 20 years.7
Failed regeneration shifts woodlands to grass and shrub lands.
These trees capture blowing snow and fog, moderating melt for downstream rivers.
Their loss reduces snowpack and spring stream flows vital to southeast Australia's water security.3
Beetles Accelerate Dieback
Even unburned snow gums succumb to native longicorn beetles.
Warmer, drier air stresses trees, drawing moisture from bark and wood.3
Beetle larvae bore into cambium, ringbarking trunks and halting water flow.
Healthy trees gum-up bore holes to drown invaders.
Drought-weakened ones fail, allowing outbreaks that spread rapidly.9
Such dieback appears across Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory.
Combined with fires, this perfect storm pushes ecosystems toward collapse.8
Coastal Squeeze Traps Wetlands
Sea-level rise pushes mangroves and salt marshes inland.
Seawalls, roads, and farms block this retreat, creating coastal squeeze.4
Mangroves encroach on salt marshes, which accrete too slowly to keep pace.
Permanent loss follows as habitats drown or convert.
These ecosystems nurse fish, feed birds, and shelter invertebrates.
Their decline ripples through food webs and fisheries.6
Mangroves also buffer shores from storm surges and erosion.
They store vast blue carbon, locked in muddy roots.
Bramble Cay's Lost Rodent
Tiny Bramble Cay in the Torres Strait hosted a unique melomys.
Rising seas and storm surges flooded its succulent food plants.
Surveys found no trace of the rodent by 2016.5
Experts deem it the first mammal extinction from human-induced climate change.
Low-lying islands worldwide face similar fates.
Global Warnings from Australia
Australia's ghost forests echo die-offs worldwide.
Alpine species struggle as climates warm faster than they migrate.
Coastal squeezes threaten 20 percent of global salt marshes.
These shifts expose systemic risks to water, food, and human settlements.
Paths Forward
- Ghost forests and squeezed coasts reveal rapid, often irreversible climate harms.
- Scientists urge deep emissions cuts to slow warming.
- Adaptation demands landscape planning to free coastal retreat paths.
- Protect unburned refuges and restore stressed woodlands.
- Communities map dieback to guide interventions.3
- Such steps can limit further collapse.
References
- Ghost forests: Australia’s snow gums under threat from climate change - Bushwalking Victoria
- The Aussie Snow Gum: An Icon In Trouble
- Mangroves and saltmarshes of Moreton Bay
- First Mammal Extinct from Human-Induced Climate Change?
- Coastal carbon – Australia's blue forest future - CSIRO Research
- A rescue plan for the snow gum forests
- Drought, bushfires and beetles: The climate-related trifecta affecting Aussie icon
- Snow gum die back linked to climate change - Mountain Journal