Submerged forest
File:Ancient sunken forest at sunset 02.jpg, Wales]]
File:Petrified tree stump at Ynyslas, Ceredigion, Wales.jpg
File:Clement Reid - Submerged forest.jpg{{cite wikisource | last1=Reid | first1=Clement | title=Submerged Forests | wslink=Submerged Forests | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1913 | firsticon=yes | noicon=yes }}]]
A submerged forest is the in situ remains of trees, especially tree stumps, that lie submerged beneath a bay, sea, ocean, lake, or other body of water. These remains have usually been buried in mud, peat, or sand for several thousand years before being uncovered by sea level change and erosion and have been preserved in the compacted sediment by the exclusion of oxygen.{{cite news|last1=Holley|first1=Peter|title=A mysterious underwater forest warns of Earth's rapidly changing climate|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/06/29/a-mysterious-underwater-forest-warns-of-earths-rapidly-changing-climate/|accessdate=14 January 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=29 June 2017}} A forest can become submerged as the result of a lake or sea level rise that results in a lacustrine or marine transgression and in-place drowning of the forest. A submerged forest that lies beneath a lake can also be formed by the blockage of a river valley by either a landslide or manmade dam.
Examples
{{globalize|section|the Anglophone countries and Europe|date=August 2019}}
Marine submerged forests may be regularly exposed at low tide; examples of these can be found at low tide on the fringes of the submerged landmass known as Doggerland,{{cite book| last=Keith|first=Arthur |title=The Antiquity of Man |publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd |date=15 Aug 2004|pages=41|chapter=3|isbn=978-81-7041-977-8|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCxEDWs8kwgC&pg=PA41}} around the coast of England and the coasts of Wales,{{cite journal|last=Campbell|first=J. A.|last2=Baxter |first2=M. S. |date=29 March 1979|title=Radiocarbon measurements on submerged forest floating chronologies | doi=10.1038/278409a0|journal=Nature|volume=278|publisher=Nature Publishing Group|issue=5703|pages=409–413|bibcode=1979Natur.278..409C|s2cid=30855253}} the Channel Islands, north-west France and Denmark. One of the first recorded encounters with submerged forests was in 1892 off of the coast of Mablethorpe.{{Cite journal|last=M.|first=M. H.|date=1892|title=Submerged Forest|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=46|issue=1180|pages=128|doi=10.1038/046128b0|bibcode=1892Natur..46R.128M|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}} In some places, such as Blackpool Sands, Dartmouth, the remains are normally covered by sand and only rarely exposed.{{cite book|last=Pengelly|first=W. |title=Report and transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZboVAAAAYAAJ|volume=3|year=1869|publisher=W. Brendon and Son|location=Cornwall, UK|pages=127–129}} During the storms of 1974 (see Penparcau){{cite book |editor1-last=Evans |editor1-first=J. G. |editor2-last=Limbrey |editor2-first=S. |editor3-last=Cleere |editor3-first=H. |year=1975 |title=The effect of man on the landscape: the Highland Zone |series=CBA Research Report |issue=11 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/421874/details/tanybwlch-submerged-forest|title=Tanybwlch submerged forest|website=Coflein|accessdate=11 June 2017}} and the winter storms of 2013–14 in the United Kingdom extensive remains of submerged forests were revealed in a number of places around the coast of Britain.{{cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pictures-bronze-age-forest-revealed-6730477|title=In pictures: The Bronze Age forest revealed in more detail than ever before by Wales' brutal storms |last=Owen|first=Cathy|date=21 February 2014|work=Wales online|accessdate=20 April 2014}}{{cite news|url=http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Storms-reveal-ancient-submerged-forest-Portreath/story-20670578-detail/story.html|title=Storms reveal ancient submerged forest at Portreath|last=Lock|first=W. B. J.|date=20 February 2014|work=West Briton|publisher=Local World|accessdate=20 April 2014}} For example, researchers discovered a 10,000 year old submerged forest that used to be part of Doggerland following the storm of 2013.{{Cite news|title=Ancient underwater forest found off UK|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-30905267|access-date=2021-03-25}} There is also evidence that some submerged forests have disappeared over time as back in 1933, there were reports of a disappearing submerged forest off of the coast of Cheshire and Lancashire.{{Cite journal|date=1933-12-01|title=Disappearance of Submerged Forests|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=132|issue=3347|pages=961|doi=10.1038/132961c0|bibcode=1933Natur.132S.961.|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}
As the North American Laurentide Ice Sheet began receding for the last time some 10,000 years ago, water levels in the future Great Lakes were sometimes much lower than at present. Forests once covered the southern end of what is now Lake Huron but as the glaciers melted and waters rose these forests were inundated and drowned. Today their remnants, well preserved logs and stumps, have been discovered in waters over 200 feet deep.{{cite web|url=http://www.vibracoring.com/files/dfreport1.pdf|title=Project Drowned Forest – A study of prehistoric undersater forests in Lake Huron, Michigan|website=Vibracoring|accessdate=11 June 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.vibracoring.com/dfproject/dfproject.html|title=DFProject website|website=Vibracoring|accessdate=11 June 2017}}
A submerged forest was found in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts.{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/11/06/nantucket_sound_may_get_historic_listing_delaying_wind_farm/|title=Nantucket Sound may get new status|last=Daley|first=Beth|date=6 November 2009 |work=The Boston Globe|accessdate=12 January 2010}} In 2012 a submerged bald cypress forest, which has been dated at around 60,000 years old, was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Alabama. There have been attempts to make it into a marine sanctuary.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/20/ancient-underwater-forest-alabama-coast |first=Paola |last=Rosa-Aquino|title = 'One of a kind': Calls to protect Alabama's 60,000-year-old underwater forest|work = The Guardian|date = 20 January 2021 |access-date=30 March 2024}}
Ecosystem
Submerged forests host a whole variety of flora and fauna. The submerged forest located off of the coast of Alabama near Dauphin Island has the bald cypress tree (Taxodium distichum).{{Cite web|title=Facies Reconstruction of a Late Pleistocene Cypress Forest Discovered on the Northern Gulf of Mexico Continental Shelf|url=http://www.gcags.org/exploreanddiscover/2017/00196_gonzalez_et_al.pdf}} Mantis shrimp, crabs, anemones, grouper, and red snappers are commonly found at this submerged forest, and of particular interest, due to their practical use in drug discovery, are shipworms.{{Cite news|last1=Klein|first1=JoAnna|last2=Flanagan|first2=Annie|date=2020-03-31|title=A Forest Submerged 60,000 Years Ago Could Save Your Life One Day|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/science/underwater-forest-shipworms.html|access-date=2021-03-25|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|title=OER Updates: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research Fiscal Year 2018 Federal Funding Opportunity Grant Awarded: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research|url=https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2019/fy19-ffo-schedule.html|access-date=2021-04-19|website=oceanexplorer.noaa.gov|language=en-US}}
See also
References
Further reading
- An early work on this subject was: {{ws|"Submerged Forests"}}, by Clement Reid F.R.S., published by Cambridge University Press in 1913.
- See also, for example, "Submarine Archaeology of the North Sea", published by English Heritage in 2004, {{ISBN|1-902771-46-X}}