Resource description:
Maximising carbon stock and habitat availability is a critical objective of contemporary forest management, with primary forests serving a crucial function due to their substantial carbon storage potential and biodiversity values. Given the limited extent and fragmentation of primary (mature and old-growth with minimal prior management) forests in Europe, there is a growing interest in understanding how rewilding (long-term management cessation) affects carbon stock and habitat provisioning. Further, little is known about the conditions required for secondary old-growth forests to achieve the carbon volumes and late-successional habitat features associated with primary forests if designated as rewilding areas. Rewilding of forest ecosystems in Europe is still a widely debated strategy, highlighting the importance of evidence-based examples. We compared some of the best-preserved primary old-growth forests with adjacent secondary old-growth forests which have been allowed to undergo self-development for an extended period of seven decades in the ecologically and socially important beech-dominated forests of the Carpathian Mountains.
Author/Contact:
Katarína Markuljaková, Martin Mikoláš, Marek Svitok, Garrett W Meigs, William S Keeton, Daniel Kozák, Jakob Pavlin, Rhiannon Gloor, Michal Kalaš, Matej Ferenčík, Dheeraj Ralhan, Michal Frankovič, Jenýk Hofmeister, Daniela Dúhová, Marek Mejstrík, Martin Dušátko, Antonín Veber, Tomáš Knír, Miroslav Svoboda