20.500.12556/RUL-188685 Increasing forest disturbance enhances habitat suitability for Europe’s large herbivores Forest disturbances have increased in many regions, but how they impact habitat suitability for wildlife remains poorly understood. Here, by combining tracking data on 3,069 individuals of four ungulate species (European bison, moose, red deer and roe deer) with satellite-based maps, we perform a continental, multi-decadal assessment of large herbivore responses to forest disturbance. Despite strong intraspecific variation, all species show an increased selection of disturbed areas for ≥35 years after disturbance. Although the patterns closely reflect species-specific foraging strategies, all species selected more strongly for smaller disturbance patches, depending on the availability of alternative foraging habitats (grasslands and croplands). Model projections across the species’ range extents show positive but regionally varying effects of forest disturbances on habitat suitability between 2000 and 2023. Our findings indicate that forest disturbances can attract large herbivores and that the recent increase in forest disturbances improved habitat suitability for our study species across Europe, highlighting the importance of considering long-term disturbance-related dynamics for wildlife and forest management. Given expected future increases in disturbance, resulting habitat improvements could amplify conflicts with forestry, but also contribute to restoring large herbivores and their ecological functions. forest ecology ecology gozdna ekologija true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-09-25 14:25:37 2026-09-25 14:25:46 2026-09-26 04:31:35 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 14 str. iss. 7 Vol. 10 Jul. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 630*15:630*4(4) 2397-334X 10.1038/s41559-026-03096-0 282898947 RAZ_Oeser_Julian_2026.pdf RAZ_Oeser_Julian_2026.pdf 1 D67E052AC70313A8EE30C6D7BB070453 4f3cef1e9759d712ffa4ea3b0d86302fd061fe890c139afa0c5e95fea37ab64b 831475fe-b8dc-11f1-8bc5-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=248998 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-026-03096-0 1 2bb22442-b8dc-11f1-8bc5-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=248997 Biotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0