Seven decades of change in a European old-growth forest following a stand-replacing wind disturbance: A long-term case study

Abstract

Understanding long-term successional changes in old growth forests affected by stand-replacing disturbance is particularly important in the context of contemporary changes in climate and disturbance regimes. We analyzed seven decades of succession following a stand-replacing wind disturbance (in 1947) in Badínsky prales, one of the best preserved old-growth fir-beech forests in western Carpathians (Central Europe), and contrasted the post-disturbance development with changes that occurred in the adjacent undisturbed old-growth forest. Both the disturbed and undisturbed sections of the old-growth forest showed compositional and structural changes that differed in their starting point, magnitude, and ecological mechanisms, but forest composition, structure and light conditions appeared to be converging across the two disturbance histories. The windthrow was initially dominated by early-successional goat willow (Salix caprea L.) that declined in abundance, basal area, and growth over time as beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) gradually increased in both abundance and basal area to dominate all canopy layers by 2015. This increase in beech dominance over time within the windthrow mirrored increasing beech dominance in the undisturbed old-growth forest which was caused by the gradual decline of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). The fact that old-growth forests originally co-dominated by fir and beech appear to be transitioning to forests dominated by beech regardless of the disturbance history suggests that beech expansion may be a robust process that should be considered in both old-growth conservation and forest management where timber harvest with low canopy retention may have similar effects on forest dynamics as a stand-replacing windthrow.