The Bass Connections project “Ghost (Forest) Stories: Unearthing History and Climate Change” brings together science, history and art to reveal how centuries of human activity have transformed the Albemarle–Pamlico Peninsula, while uncovering what it all means in an era of rising sea levels and intensifying hurricanes. (Illustration by Aeran Coughlin and Michelle Ling)
Ghost (Forest) Stories: Uncovering the Past to Understand a Changing Coast
On North Carolina’s low-lying coast, where trunks of dead trees rise silver and bare from dark waters, a team of storytellers trace how the past continues to shape the future. Through the Bass Connections project, Ghost (Forest) Stories: Unearthing History and Climate Change, they bring together science, history and art to reveal how centuries of human activity have transformed the Albemarle–Pamlico Peninsula, while uncovering what it all means in an era of rising sea levels and intensifying hurricanes.
Ghost forests, the team explains, are the latest manifestation of change. As rising seas and saltwater intrusion kill off once-healthy trees, the spectral remains of pine and cedar stand as evidence of both climate change and a long history of human engineering.
The idea for this project began at the inaugural meeting of the Saltwater Intrusion and Sea Level Rise Research Coordinating Network, explains Aeran Coughlin, who is completing their Ph.D. in Ecology. “Researchers from across disciplines at Duke and other institutions were thinking of ways to collaborate around these issues, and one idea that emerged was to take a historical ecology approach in understanding the coastal landscape.”
That spark grew into the multidisciplinary Bass Connections project that weaves together ecology, mapping, community-engagement and archival research. Under the guidance of faculty and graduate student leads, a team of undergraduates explored how centuries of human decisions — from canal building and agriculture to logging, military expansion and tourism — have altered the ways water moves and shapes life along North Carolina’s coast.
Hannah Conway, assistant professor of History, is one of the team’s faculty leads. As an environmental historian studying the U.S. South, she was a perfect fit for the project. Conway recalls how, almost as soon as she arrived on campus, Justin Wright, professor of Biology and Marine Science & Conservation and also a team leader, looped her in. “I really love interdisciplinary work. My Ph.D. is in the history of science and technology, so I come from a background of thinking across fields. I like working with scientists. I like watching scientists work.”
That interdisciplinarity was central to the story the team told through its final product: an interactive ArcGIS StoryMap titled “Ghost (Forest) Stories: Unearthing History and Understanding Climate Change on North Carolina’s Coast.” Through a mix of historical maps, pre-collected oral histories and satellite imagery, students documented how drainage canals, deforestation and infrastructure have left coastal ecosystems more vulnerable to storms and flooding.
Coughlin said students were drawn to questions that could only be answered by looking beyond a single discipline. “We were trying to understand how this landscape has changed over time — not just ecologically, but socially and economically,” they said. “How did the ways people moved water or used the land hundreds of years ago make the coast more vulnerable today? And how is this impacting the people whose lives — and livelihoods — are tied to these places?”
To answer those questions, students went on field trips, spoke to residents and saw first-hand the devastation brought on by recent hurricanes: Irene in 2011, Florence in 2018 and Dorian one year later. That approach helped them recognize that ghost forests are not only ecological phenomena but also societal, cultural and historical ones.
The StoryMap situates the die-off of trees within a much larger narrative that begins with Indigenous stewardship of longleaf pine forests, continues through the naval stores industry and the draining of Lake Mattamuskeet and extends to modern tourism and military use. Archival maps sit beside residents’ voices that recall hurricanes, economic shifts and the stubborn beauty of the coast.
The open-endedness of the project allowed students to surprise their team leads with interesting new directions. “The curveball for me were the birds,” laughs Conway. Coughlin explains that some of the undergraduate students took an unexpectedly deep dive into bird migration patterns, and in their important role in a coastal culture and economy so closely linked to waterfowl hunting. “We started out very plant- and ecosystem-focused, so it was a fun detour from what we had expected,” they said. “It was sort of, ‘Okay, forests are changing. But what are the implications for other types of communities?”
“I don't think we would have looked at duck decoys if we hadn't gone and really spent some time in and around folks who live in the area,” said Conway. “When you go into a community and you talk to them about how they think about their history, what they think matters, what kind of unanswered questions they have, and letting that become part of the research — rather than imposing what you think your research should look like — the whole thing opens up, and students were really interested in that.”
Conway sees the project as an invitation to think about climate change through the lens of human history. “Part of what’s so powerful about this work is that it shows how deeply people are embedded in their environments — and how much those environments remember,” she said. “By connecting past and present, we can ask better questions about what resilience really means.”
In addition to their historical and ecological findings, the team also looked forward. The StoryMap’s closing section highlights adaptation strategies — from planting salt-tolerant species to constructing “living shorelines” and spreading thin layers of sediment to help wetlands rise with the seas. “Those strategies show that resilience isn’t just a scientific problem,” Coughlin said. “It’s about how communities, economies and ecosystems can all adapt together.”
For both Coughlin and Conway, “Ghost (Forest) Stories” exemplifies what can happen when disciplines converge to tell a story bigger than any single field. “It was exciting to watch students realize they could use historical methods and ecological data to build one coherent picture,” Conway said. “They were creating something that’s scientifically rigorous but also emotionally resonant, something that helps people see why this place matters.”
As the project continues to evolve, both researchers hope its lessons will ripple beyond the classroom and the coast. “Understanding these landscapes is about more than loss,” said Coughlin. “It’s about recognizing the connections that have always existed between people and the land, and how those connections can guide us toward a more resilient future.”
“Ghost (Forest) Stories” was developed through the Bass Connections project Unearthing History and Understanding Climate Change on North Carolina’s Coast, led by Hannah Conway (History), Ryan Emanuel (Environmental Sciences & Policy), Hannah Jacobs (Art, Art History & Visual Studies) and Justin Wright (Biology).
Graduate team members included Aeran Coughlin (Ph.D. in Ecology), Kayla Emerson (Coastal & Marine Systems; Environmental Analytics & Modeling), and Mason Ibrahim (Coastal & Marine Systems; Environmental Analytics & Modeling).
Undergraduate team members were Jack Adams (Economics), Advait Bhaskar Pandit (Mathematics; Computer Science), Nicole Caplan (Economics Environmental Science & Policy), Nina Castro Alves (Environmental Sciences), Ewan Dignon (Public Policy; Economics), Yujin Kim (Environmental Sciences; Cultural Anthropology), Lucas Lin (Economics), Michelle Ling (Program II), and Hiwot Shaw (Environmental Science & Policy).
Contributors included Robert Buerglener (Information Science + Information Studies) and Ed Triplett (Art, Art History & Visual Studies).
