Over the last decade, several extreme weather events contributed to considerable loss and degradation of forest ecosystems throughout central Europe [1]. For future forest protection an in-depth understanding of these disturbances and their interactions is crucial to target the transformation and adaptation of forests [2]. The vulnerability of forest stands to disturbances is determined by the interaction of a large number of environmental influences and their characteristics. The influencing variables are interrelated at multiple dimensions and scales [3]. Due to the complexity of cause-effect relationships in forest ecosystems and the multitude of factors involved, stress response of forests and trees has not been fully decoded as yet and hence remains a research topic of growing importance for climate adaptation [4].
The recording of small-scale ecological phenomena and their dynamics requires spatially and temporally continuous high-resolution data to retrieve explicit information, which cannot fully be covered by current terrestrial monitoring networks e.g., the ICP Forests crown conditions survey or national forest inventories. The combination of satellite time series analysis and change detection algorithms can detect forest vitality changes across time and space at a high resolution in order to extract disturbance signatures with event-specific patterns from phenological time series [5].
In this study, we use forest disturbance recordings of forest fires, storm damage, and forest defoliation or dieback induced by insects, fungal pathogens, or drought from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the Database of wind disturbances in European forest (FORWIND), the Database of European Forest Insect & Disease Disturbances (DEFIS2), and the Global Drought Observatory (GDO) as well as MODIS phenological time series ranging from 2001 to 2023 to gather disturbance sequences and compile a pan-European disturbance interaction chronology map in order to identify forest disturbance hotspots in Europe, extract disturbance interaction related signatures from phenological time series and quantify the interaction effects in terms of disturbance specific changes in forest vitality over space and time.
References:
[1] Patacca, M, Lindner, M, Lucas‐Borja, ME, Cordonnier, T, Fidej, G, Gardiner, B, ... & Schelhaas, MJ (2023). Significant increase in natural disturbance impacts on European forests since 1950. Global change biology, 29(5), 1359-1376. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16531
[2] Bolte, A, Ammer, C, Löf, M, Madsen, P, Nabuurs, GJ, Schall, P, ... & Rock, J (2009). Adaptive forest management in central Europe: climate change impacts, strategies and integrative concept. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 24(6), 473-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/02827580903418224
[3] Sanders, TGM, Spathelf, P, & Bolte, A (2019). The response of forest trees to abiotic stress. In Achieving sustainable management of boreal and temperate forests (pp. 99-128). Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing. DOI:10.19103/AS.2019.0057.05
[4] Ammer, C, Fichtner, A, Fischer, A, Gossner, MM, Meyer, P, Seidl, R, ... & Wagner, S (2018). Key ecological research questions for Central European forests. Basic and Applied Ecology, 32, 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2018.07.006
[5] Gnilke, A, & Sanders, TGM (2022). Distinguishing abrupt and gradual forest disturbances with MODIS-based phenological anomaly series. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 863116. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.863116