Central Europe has faced major disasters causing fluctuations in salvage logging. These events, driven by natural or human factors, have damaged forest. Climate change is a key factor that cyclically affects these patterns. These forest disasters cause billions in financial losses due to lower wood prices and quality, but their regular cycles are poorly understood. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of salvage logging in Austria, Czechia, and Slovakia. Analyses indicate an upward trend in bark beetle-induced logging over the past five decades, with a notable surge in salvage logging in recent years. Cyclical fluctuations linked to solar activity represented by total solar irradiance (TSI) have been observed across the data. Higher TSI reduces beetle-induced logging to 3%–5%, while lower TSI increases it to 17%–24% near the solar minimum. An increase to higher seasonal temperature and a decrease to low precipitation one year before leads to a peak in beetle-induced logging, caused by drought. Seasonal precipitation and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) have less impact, but higher precipitation is seen one year after the peak in bark-beetle logging. Droughts regularly occur one year before calamity peaks, confirmed by the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). Harvests caused by wind and snow events have shorter cycles compared to the longer and more regular cycles of bark beetle-induced harvest. Common wavelet power spectrum analysis revealed a consistent 9- to 12-year cycle across all data sets. Solar cycle significantly impacts forest management through the NAO, precipitation, and temperature. The study suggests the potential for utilizing cyclical relationships in calamity prediction and more effective forest management in Central Europe.

Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) is a flexible European tree species, mainly vegetating within the mountainous regions of Europe, but its growth responses across its latitudinal and longitudinal range have not yet been satisfactorily verified under changing environmental conditions. This study describes the tree-ring increment of silver fir in research plots across a latitudinal gradient from the northern range in Czechia (CZ), through Croatia (HR) to the southernmost range in Italy (IT). The research aims to analyze in detail the dynamics and cyclicity of the ring-width index (RWI) and how it relates to climatic factors (temperature and precipitation), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and total solar irradiance (TSI), including the determination of latitude. The results show that the main drivers affecting fir growth are the seasonal NAO index and TSI. Monthly temperatures affect RWI early in the vegetation season, while lack of precipitation during the summer is a limiting factor for fir growth, especially in July. Seasonal temperatures and temperatures in June and July negatively impact, while seasonal precipitation totals in the same months positively influence the RWI in all research plots across meridian. The longest growth cycles in fir RWI were recorded in the northernmost studied plots in CZ. These cyclical fluctuations recede approaching the south. The cyclic increase in RWI is related to the TSI, which decreases its effect from north to south. The TSI's effects vary, positively impacting CZ but negatively influencing HR while remaining relatively neutral in IT. On the other hand, seasonal NAO tends to negatively affect silver fir growth in HR and CZ but has a mildly positive effect in IT. In conclusion, the TSI and the influence of the seasonal NAO index are prevalent in the fir RWI and are accompanied by a greater cyclicity of RWI in Central Europe (temperature optimum) than in the Italian Mediterranean region, where this tree species is limited by climatic conditions, especially lack of precipitation.