Large-scale and long-term spatiotemporal patterns of disturbances in primary beech-dominated forests in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41320%2F25%3A102571" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41320/25:102571 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Large-scale and long-term spatiotemporal patterns of disturbances in primary beech-dominated forests in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe

Original language description

Extreme disturbance activity is a signature of anthropogenic environmental change. Empirical information describing the historical normative limits of disturbance regimes provides baseline data that facilitates the detection of contemporary trends in both disturbances and community-level responses. Quantifying the attributes of historical disturbances is challenging due to their transient episodic nature, with decades-to centurieslong intervals between recurrences. Unmanaged primary forests that support centuries-old trees therefore serve as unique reference systems for quantifying past disturbance regimes. We surveyed relict stands of primary beech-dominated forests over wide environmental gradients in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe. We collected core samples from 3,026 trees in 208 field survey plots distributed across 13 forest stands in two countries. We used dendrochronological methods to analyze time-series of annually-resolved ring-width variation and to identify anomalous growth patterns diagnostic of past forest canopy removal. A 180-year record (1810-1990) of spatially and temporally explicit disturbance events (n = 333) was compiled and used to derive statistical attributes of the disturbance regime. We quantified disturbance severity (canopy area lost), patch size, and return intervals. Our analyses describe a complex regime where a background of relatively frequent, smallscale, low-to intermediate-severity disturbance was punctuated by episodic large-scale high-severity events. Even the most severe events were non-catastrophic at a stand level, leaving significant residual tree cover that supported a continuity of ecological function. We did not detect evidence for an expected climate-induced intensification of disturbance with time, but methodological limitations precluded an assessment of disturbance activity in the decades since 1990.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

40102 - Forestry

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA21-27454S" target="_blank" >GA21-27454S: Large scale analyses of primary forests: Disentangling drivers of biomass and biodiversity indicators</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Forest Ecosystems

ISSN

2095-6355

e-ISSN

2095-6355

Volume of the periodical

14

Issue of the periodical within the volume

DEC 2025

Country of publishing house

CN - CHINA

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

1-11

UT code for WoS article

001533906400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105008919990