Old-growth reserves serve as natural laboratories for analysing the dynamics of forest stands without direct influence of humans. In 1984, permanent research plots were placed in the Rajhenavski Rog with a total area of 1.91 ha intended for the analysis of long-term demography. A fifth iteration of the census was carried out in 2020. Mortality and recruitment of beech and fir, the two dominant species, varied over time. Throughout the monitoring period, no ingrowth of the fir was detected, and its density in small diameter classes declined over time, likely due to large populations of red deer. The lack of recruitment and continuous mortality also resulted in a general decline in fir across all diameter classes. In contrast, the number of beech in the smallest diameter class has steadily increased over time, and recruitment of beech is notable across most diameter classes. These trends highlight a steady replacement of fir by beech, which may lead to a long-term change in species composition at the site. In the last three measurements, there has been an increase in the number of live-snapped, uprooted, crushed trees, indicating an increase in disturbance induced tree mortality, especially smaller windthrow events.
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