Three growing seasons after the 2014 ice storm event that caused extensive damage in large forest areas of Slovenia and Croatia, we measured the mortality rate and resprouting response of damaged trees in broadleaved forests. Analyses focused on sycamore maple, sweet chestnut, European beech and sessile oak, as well as a smaller sample of European ash and wild cherry. We analysed 810 trees across four locations scattered around Slovenian forests. The highest mortality rate among the four main tree species was sessile oak (12,6 %) while sycamore maple had the slowest rate (2,0 %). All trees that died over the three year period had more than 75 % of their crowns removed. Epicormic sprouting was the densest on sycamore maple trees, while beech had the lowest density of sprouts. European ash trees had the highest growth rate of bole sprouts, followed by sycamore maple, while sessile oak and beech had the slowest rate. Canopy sprouts grew slower than bole sprouts on all of six tree species except beech, where they had similar growth rates. Canopy sprouts had the highest growth rate for sycamore maple and the slowest rate for sessile oak. We found only a weak correlation between diameter, tree height, slope, stand basal area and variables describing epicormic sprouting intensity. The results suggest that snapped, severely bent, and trees with the potential for high quality timber should be marked as priority specimens for salvage logging, while other damaged trees should be left in the forest as they have high survival rates and capacity to rebuild their crowns.
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