Rising Seas Leave Salt Marsh Mark on South Carolina Shoreline

Rising sea level may be hard to notice in cities where seawalls and docks line the shorefront. But it’s easy to see down a winding coastal dirt road in South Carolina’s Georgetown County.

Clemson University researchers have compared aerial photographs taken over six decades at Strawberry Swamp at Hobcaw Barony on Winyah Bay. And their study shows rising sea levels have resulted in about a 300 percent increase in salt marsh in the area — from about four acres to more than 16 acres.

As the freshwater forest wetlands have been converted into a salt marsh, dead trees in the water bear silent witness to how rising sea level is changing the landscape.

The study says sea level rise in the area has averaged 3 to 4 millimeters a year during the past century.