Natural disturbances are spatially diverse but temporally synchronized across temperate forest landscapes in Europe. (22nd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Senf, Cornelius; Seidl, Rupert
• Is Part Of: Global change biology. Volume 24:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 1201
• Page End: 1211
• Publication Date: 2017-09-22
• Subjects: bark beetles -- Central Europe -- Ips typographus -- Landsat -- landscape analysis -- natural disturbance -- temperate forests -- topography -- windthrow; Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Troposphere -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Biodiversity conservation -- Periodicals; Eutrophication -- Periodicals; 551.5
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13897
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-1013

Abstract

Abstract: Natural disturbance regimes are changing substantially in forests around the globe. However, large‐scale disturbance change is modulated by a considerable spatiotemporal variation within biomes. This variation remains incompletely understood particularly in the temperate forests of Europe, for which consistent large‐scale disturbance information is lacking. Here, our aim was to quantify the spatiotemporal patterns of forest disturbances across temperate forest landscapes in Europe using remote sensing data and determine their underlying drivers. Specifically, we tested two hypotheses: (1) Topography determines the spatial patterns of disturbance, and (2) climatic extremes synchronize natural disturbances across the biome. We used novel Landsat‐based maps of forest disturbances 1986–2016 in combination with landscape analysis to compare spatial disturbance patterns across five unmanaged forest landscapes with varying topographic complexity. Furthermore, we analyzed annual estimates of disturbances for synchronies and tested the influence of climatic extremes on temporal disturbance patterns. Spatial variation in disturbance patterns was substantial across temperate forest landscapes. With increasing topographic complexity, natural disturbance patches were smaller, more complex in shape, more dispersed, and affected a smaller portion of the landscape. Temporal disturbance patterns, however, were strongly synchronized across all landscapes, with three distinct waves of high disturbance activity between 1986 and 2016. All three waves followed years of pronounced drought and high peak wind speeds. Natural disturbances in temperate forest landscapes of Europe are thus spatially diverse but temporally synchronized. We conclude that the ecological effect of natural disturbances (i.e., whether they are homogenizing a landscape or increasing its heterogeneity) is strongly determined by the topographic template. Furthermore, as the strong biome‐wide synchronization of disturbances was closely linked to climatic extremes, large‐scale disturbance episodes are likely in Europe's temperate forests under climate changes. Abstract : Natural disturbance regimes are changing around the globe. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of change. Our aim was to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of forest disturbances across the temperate forest of Europe by combining remote sensing and topographic/meteorological data. Our results show that natural disturbances in the temperate forest of Europe are spatially diverse but temporally synchronized. We conclude that the ecological effects of natural disturbances are strongly determined by the topographic template, and that synchronization of disturbance activity is linked to climatic extremes. Large‐scale disturbance episodes are hence likely in Europe under climate change.