Frequent severe natural disturbances and non-equilibrium landscape dynamics shaped the mountain spruce forest in central Europe

Disturbances shape forest structure and composition, but the temporal dynamics of disturbance patterns, their influence on dynamics of forest structural complexity, and the potential impacts of ongoing climate changes are not fully understood. We addressed these issues by focusing on (1) long-term, landscape level retrospective analysis of disturbance dynamics of mountain Norway spruce (Picea abies) forest; (2) testing for the prevailing disturbance agent; and (3) the detection of disturbance drivers, particularly site conditions, using a dendrochronological approach. We had a unique opportunity to sample a large area of natural forest (in otherwise altered region) in Bohemian Forest, that was recently affected by extensive and severe wind and bark beetle disturbances raising management concerns. Tree-ring series of a minimum of 35 trees on each of the 26 study plots were analysed for signals of past disturbances that were indicated either by release from suppression (rapid growth increase) or rapid early growth rate (gap origin). A broad range of disturbance severities were detected across the landscape, but severe disturbances (>50% trees responded), with a short rotation period of 174 years, best characterize the area. Reconstructed disturbances were associated with historically documented windstorms and bark beetle outbreaks. They were distributed across the landscape and affected its large portions with spatially variable severity. Over the last five centuries, disturbances peaked in the 1820s, but were rare after 1880. This non-equilibrium dynamics resulted into mature landscape structure at the end of 20th century and contributed to the large extent of disturbances in the last two decades. Disturbances were more frequent on wind-exposed locations such as mountain ridges and flatter terrain. Frequent disturbances did not allow the forest to develop into an old-growth phase; rather disturbance events of variable severities created structures important for biodiversity and could also preserve key early-seral phases in the landscape. We anticipate that potential future increase of disturbance intensities will not lead to comparable regime shifts in forests shaped by high-severity disturbances that kill largely mature trees (e.g., wind and bark beetle), because such disturbances are followed by resistant forest structure. Conservation areas should be large enough to allow for a wide range of disturbances. Emphasizing ecological functions needs understanding of biological legacies of natural disturbances and managers could partly rely on natural events to restore natural features into cultivated forests. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.