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Sheltered or suppressed? Tree regeneration in unmanaged European forests
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  • Yannek Käber,
  • Christof Bigler,
  • Janneke Hillerislambers,
  • Martina Hobi,
  • Tom Nagel,
  • Tuomas Aakala,
  • Markus Blaschke,
  • Peter Brang,
  • Bogdan Brzeziecki,
  • Marco Carrer,
  • Eugenie Cateau,
  • Georg Frank,
  • Shawn Fraver,
  • Jokin Idoate-Lacasia,
  • Jan Holik,
  • Stanislav Kucbel,
  • Anja Leyman,
  • Peter Meyer,
  • Renzo Motta,
  • Pavel Šamonil,
  • Lucia Seebach,
  • Jonas Stillhard,
  • Miroslav Svoboda,
  • Jerzy Szwagrzyk,
  • Kris Vandekerkhove,
  • Ondřej Vostarek,
  • Tzvetan Zlatanov,
  • Harald Bugmann
Yannek Käber
ETH Zurich

Corresponding Author:yannek.kaeber@usys.ethz.ch

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Christof Bigler
ETH Zürich
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Janneke Hillerislambers
ETH Zurich
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Martina Hobi
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL
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Tom Nagel
University of Ljubljana
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Tuomas Aakala
University of Eastern Finland
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Markus Blaschke
Bavarian State Institute of Forestry
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Peter Brang
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL
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Bogdan Brzeziecki
Warsaw University of Life Sciences
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Marco Carrer
University of Padua
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Eugenie Cateau
Reserves Naturelles de France
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Georg Frank
Austrian Research Centre for Forests
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Shawn Fraver
The University of Maine
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Jokin Idoate-Lacasia
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL
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Jan Holik
Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening
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Stanislav Kucbel
Technical University of Zvolen
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Anja Leyman
Research Institute for Nature and Forest
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Peter Meyer
Northwest German Forest Research Institute
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Renzo Motta
University of Turin
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Pavel Šamonil
Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening
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Lucia Seebach
Forest Research Institute Baden-Wuerttemberg
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Jonas Stillhard
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL
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Miroslav Svoboda
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
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Jerzy Szwagrzyk
University of Agriculture in Krakow
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Kris Vandekerkhove
Research Institute for Nature and Forest
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Ondřej Vostarek
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
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Tzvetan Zlatanov
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
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Harald Bugmann
ETH Zürich
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Abstract

Tree regeneration is a key demographic process influencing long-term forest dynamics. It is driven by many biotic and abiotic factors. Thus, predictions of tree regeneration are challenging because of complex feedbacks along climatic gradients. The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) and life-history strategies (LHS) provide a framework for assessing such feedbacks across different species ranges. To address these topics, we analyzed regeneration for 24 tree species in 6,540 plots from 299 unmanaged European forests. Negative interactions predominated, with their intensity decreasing under stressful conditions for most species, as predicted by the SGH. However, positive interactions were only evident for a few species. Our study indicates that SGH and LHS can be combined to partially explain within- and between-species differences in tree recruitment. Moreover, our findings imply that projections of forest dynamics along wide climatic gradients must accommodate both negative and positive biotic interactions, as they strongly affect rates of community turnover.
10 Sep 2023Published in Journal of Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14181