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

Janda, Pavel (author), Buechling, Arne (author), Svitok, Marek (author), Nagel, Thomas Andrew (author), Mikoláš, Martin (author), Bače, Radek (author), Begovič, Krešimir (author), Dušátko, Martin (author), Dúhová, Daniela (author), Ferenčík, Matej (author)

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.

• Language: English
• Keywords: canopy gap, climate change, disturbance regime, ecosystem resilience, natural range of variability, baseline conditions, tree mortality
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.12.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 11 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 14, [article no.] ǂ100358
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176699
• UDC: 630*42:630*56
• ISSN on article: 2197-5620
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100358
• COBISS.SI-ID: 241096707
• Publication date in RUL: 09.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Forest ecosystems
• Shortened title: Forest ecosyst.
• Publisher: Beijing Forestry University, publishing services by Elsevier B.V
• ISSN: 2197-5620
• COBISS.SI-ID: 524649753

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: gozdna vrzel, podnebne spremembe, režimi motenj, odpornost ekosistema, razpon variabilnosti, osnovni dejavniki, smrtnost dreves