Structural dynamics and synchronous silver fir decline in mixed old-growth mountain forests in Eastern and Southeastern Europe

Studies of old-growth forests are becoming increasingly important for the improvement of silviculture and for understanding environmental changes. However, in Europe such forests are rare, fragmented and influenced by millennia of human activity. Comparative studies of old-growth forests across Europe are needed to improve knowledge on how direct and indirect anthropogenic factors influence their structure. We analysed structural dynamics in 15 silver fir-beech-Norway spruce old-growth forests in Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Changes in diameter distributions, stand parameters and regeneration were analysed at intervals of 6-116 years. Most diameter growth at breast height (d.b.h.) distributions approximated a rotated sigmoid shape, which could be explained by differences in growth and mortality rates with respect to d.b.h. class and by disturbance history. Our results suggest that different disturbance types are likely to cause different changes in d.b.h. distributions. For example, overbrowsing, canopy dieback of silver fir and windthrow decreased the density of small, intermediate and large-diameter silver fir, respectively. The slopes of the fitted diameter distribution curves were steeper for beech than for silver fir, which could be explained by their different life strategies. Despite disturbances, growing stocks remained stable over the long term. A synchronous silver fir decline was confirmed. It was more pronounced in Slovenia and Slovakia, both of which experienced more SO2 pollution and had higher ungulate densities. The silver fir sapling stage was often totally absent in both countries. Our results suggest that anthropogenic disturbances, especially air pollution and overbrowsing (resulting from human-induced increases in deer density), significantly influenced the coexistence of silver fir and beech; asynchronous, patchy changes in species mixture have been replaced by large-scale synchronous changes.