TY  - JOUR
AU  - Janda, Pavel
AU  - Buechling, Arne
AU  - Svitok, Marek
AU  - Nagel, Thomas A.
AU  - Mikoláš, Martin
AU  - Bače, Radek
AU  - Begović, Krešimir
AU  - Dušátko, Martin
AU  - Dúhová, Daniela
AU  - Ferenčík, Matěj
AU  - Frankovič, Michal
AU  - Gloor, Rhiannon
AU  - Kameniar, Ondrej
AU  - Kníř, Tomáš
AU  - Kozák, Daniel
AU  - Lábusová, Jana Ágh
AU  - Markuljaková, Katarína
AU  - Pavlin, Jakob
AU  - Petritan, Ion Catalin
AU  - Roibu, Catalin-Constantin
AU  - Salerno, Audrey Rose
AU  - Ujházy, Karol
AU  - Veber, Antonín
AU  - Vítková, Lucie
AU  - Svoboda, Miroslav
PY  - 2025
TI  - Large-scale and long-term spatiotemporal patterns of disturbances in primary beech-dominated forests in the Carpathian Mountains of Europe
JO  - Forest Ecosystems
SN  - 2095-6355
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
AB  - 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 centuries-long 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, small-scale, 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.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358
DO  - 10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358