Much of North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula lies just a few feet above sea level, which exposes it to ocean water driven inland by storms and rising seas. The salt deposits left behind build up year after year, until eventually they become too much for some plants to cope with. Researchers have identified a ‘tipping point’ where even tiny changes in salinity can set off disproportionately large changes in the plants that live there.
