Recovery and resilience of European temperate forests after large and severe disturbancesCerioni, Matteo (Avtor) Nagel, Thomas Andrew (Mentor) Roženbergar, Dušan (Komentor) Forest resiliencestand-replacing disturbancespost-disturbance recoveryregenerationenvironmental filteringsalvage loggingungulate browsingmixed forestsEvidence of recent regeneration failures after large and severe disturbances in temperate forests across the world have sparked concerns regarding forest resilience and post-disturbance recovery dynamics under climate change. We here present ground-based empirical evidence of patterns and drivers of resilience of European temperate forests to large and severe disturbances and offer valuable insights into forest management. We show that European temperate forests are resilient to their current disturbance regime, with recovery in forest structure being more common than that of species composition. However, forest recovery was less likely after severe fire events than other disturbance agents. The most prominent environmental, biotic, and management-related drivers of post-storm recovery were, respectively, elevation, ungulate browsing, and the execution of salvage logging, all of which had a consistently negative impact on post-disturbance regeneration. Our results suggest that allowing natural recovery processes to unfold may be a preferable post-disturbance management strategy over costly measures, such as salvage logging and planting. However, management options should always be evaluated with consideration of the ecological and societal context-specific factors. Since disturbances are predicted to further intensify under climate change, we stress the importance of continued monitoring of forest recovery, in order to promptly inform adaptive management measures.[M. Cerioni]20252025-07-02 14:04:55Doktorsko delo/naloga170195UDK: 630*4:630*23(043.3)=111VisID: 257705COBISS_ID: 241282563sl