Elevation as a key driver of half‐millennium disturbance history in Central European mountain natural forests

Despite significant stochasticity, the occurrence of disturbance events is co‐determined by general ecological rules, such as temperature gradient with increasing altitude or stronger wind loads on slopes. A detailed understanding of past disturbance dynamics and their driving forces forms a crucial foundation for ensuring the sustainability of forest ecosystems. This is particularly important in the context of shifting disturbance regimes under accelerating climate change. The exceptionally well‐preserved Bohemian Forest Ecosystem, the largest contiguous forested area in Central Europe, provides a unique archive for studying past disturbance dynamics.

Here, our objective is to clarify the ecological nature of disturbance phenomena to improve our understanding of forest ecosystem development. Using an extensive dendrochronological dataset of more than 7600 tree‐ring series distributed across diverse ecological gradients, we developed a unique transboundary disturbance chronology extending back to the early 17th century. Generalized linear mixed‐effects models were applied to assess relationships between environmental factors and disturbance regimes.

Our results provide evidence of a slow but persistent acceleration of disturbance processes over the past 400 years. Elevation emerged as the strongest predictor of disturbance frequency. The likelihood of forest stand disturbance generally rises as altitude decreases, reflecting interspecific differences in morphological traits and elevation‐dependent tree‐growth potential. Forest type and aspect further modulated this effect, emphasizing the influence of local topography on the susceptibility to disturbances. Natural disturbance dynamics vary across the forest types rather than occurring in synchrony, thus promoting high disturbance complexity and forest landscape heterogeneity, particularly in primary forests.

Synthesis . Under climate change and the underlying shift in the tree species composition, a higher probability of disturbances can be anticipated in mixed forests at lower elevations. However, our findings highlight the importance of maintaining the diversity of natural processes in supporting the resilience of forest communities to extreme and unpredictable disturbance events, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation.