RT Journal Article
T1 Structural and Compositional Disturbance Legacies Mediate the Resistance of European Forests to Repeated Disturbances
A1 Kulha, Niko
A1 Kunstler, Georges
A1 Reineking, Björn
A1 Peltoniemi, Mikko
A1 Honkaniemi, Juha
A1 Korhonen, Kari T.
A1 Ruiz Benito, Paloma
A1 Zavala, Miguel A.
A1 Rebollo Orozco, Pedro
A1 Barrere, Julien
AB Aim. Climate change is altering forest disturbance regimes across Europe. Structural and species diversity are generally thought to enhance disturbance resistance. However, how disturbances affect stand structure and tree species diversity remains untested across broad spatial gradients and for multiple disturbance agents. Furthermore, determining how disturbance-induced changes affect resistance to subsequent disturbances is critical for understanding forest dynamics in the face of global change. Location. The forests of Finland, France and Spain. Time Period 1986–2020 ce. Major Taxa Studied Trees.Methods. We examined the effects of tree size and tree species diversity on resistance to fire, wind, biotic and snow disturbances using a National Forest Inventory dataset of 4827 disturbed plots. We quantified disturbance resistance as the tree mortality response to different severity disturbances. We modelled the immediate disturbance-driven changes in structural and tree species diversity, and predicted how these changes affect resistance to subsequent disturbances. Results. High structural diversity increased stand resistance to snow disturbance, and high species diversity decreased resistance to fire. Severe disturbances consistently decreased structural and species diversity across all disturbance agents. However, both diversity metrics increased after low severity snow disturbances, and structural diversity increased after low severity biotic disturbance. Resistance to subsequent disturbance increased after low severity fire and low to moderate severity wind disturbances. Biotic and snow disturbance had the opposite effect, with moderate severity disturbances decreasing resistance to subsequent disturbance more than low severity disturbances.  Main Conclusions. Structural and species diversity had little effect on plot-level disturbance resistance. Severe disturbances consistently decreased structural and species diversity, while low to moderate severity disturbances can increase these diversities. Resistance to subsequent disturbance is contrasted between disturbance agents and disturbance severity. Increasing disturbance severity may decrease structural and species diversity in future forests.
PB John Wiley & Sons
SN 1466-822X
YR 2025
FD 2025-08-29
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/129416
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/129416
LA eng
NO Kulha, N., Kunstler, G., Reineking, B., Peltoniemi, M., Honkaniemi, J., Korhonen, K. T., Ruiz-Benito, P., Zavala, M. A., Rebollo, P., & Barrere, J. (2025). Structural and Compositional Disturbance Legacies Mediate the Resistance of European Forests to Repeated Disturbances. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 34(9). https://doi.org/10.1111/GEB.70106
NO This work was supported by the BiodivClim ERA-Net Cofund (joint BiodivERsA Call on ‘Biodiversity and Climate Change’, 2019–2020) with national co-funding through ANR (France, project ANR20-EBI5-0005-03), Research Council of Finland (decision no. 344722), and Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany, grant no. 16LC2021A). This study has also received co-funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement 101000574. N.K. was also supported by the Osk. Huttunen Foundation. J.H. was supported by the Research Council of Finland (decision no. 342569). P.R.B., M.A.Z. and P.R. are supported by the Science and Innovation Ministry, AEI (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) (subproject LARGE, No. PID2021-123675OB-C41) and by grant VERDAT; MITECO, Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales, Ref. 2794/2021. P.R.B. was also supported by the Community of Madrid Region under the framework of the multi-year Agreement with the University of Alcalá (Stimulus to Excellence for Permanent University Professors, EPU-INV/2020/010).
NO Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France)
NO Research Council of Finland
NO Federal Ministry of Education and Research
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (España)
NO Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (España)
NO Comunidad de Madrid
NO Universidad de Alcalá de Henares
DS Docta Complutense
RD 25 feb 2026