A spatially-explicit database of wind disturbances in European forests over the period 2000–2018

Abstract

Abstract. Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent one of the major natural disturbances for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the climate change effects. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially-explicit databases of wind-related impact at Pan-European scale. Here, we present a new database of wind disturbances in European forests (FORWIND). FORWIND comprises more than 80,000 spatially delineated areas in Europe that were disturbed by wind in the period 2000–2018, and describes them in a harmonized and consistent geographical vector format. Correlation analyses performed between the areas in FORWIND and land cover changes retrieved from the Landsat-based Global Forest Change dataset and the MODIS Global Disturbance Index corroborate the robustness of FORWIND. Spearman rank coefficients range between 0.27 and 0.48 (p-value<0.05). When recorded forest areas are rescaled based on their damage degree, correlation increases to 0.54. Wind-damaged growing stock volumes reported in national inventories (FORESTORM dataset) are generally higher than analogous metrics provided by FORWIND in combination with satellite-based biomass and country-scale statistics of growing stock volume. Overall, FORWIND represents a valuable and open-access spatial source to improve our understanding of the vulnerability of forests to winds and develop large-scale monitoring/modelling of natural disturbances. Data sharing is encouraged in order to continuously update and improve FORWIND. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9555008 (Forzieri et al., 2019).

Emergent vulnerability to climate-driven disturbances in European forests

“…Fires were retrieved from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS, https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ ) and count 15,818 records. Windthrows were acquired from the European Forest Windthrow dataset 62 (FORWIND, 10.6084/m9.figshare.9555008) with 89,743 records. Insect outbreaks were retrieved from the National Insect and Disease Survey (IDS, http://foresthealth.fs.usda.gov ) database of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which includes 50,777 records.…”

Storm and fire disturbances in Europe: Distribution and trends

“…As no spatially exhaustive dataset existed that could be used as calibration data, we combined visual interpretation of the disturbance map, Landsat data and high‐resolution satellite images with different European storm and fire databases to identify true occurrences of storm‐ and fire‐related disturbances. Specifically, we checked for each storm entered in either the European Forest Institute's database on forest disturbances in Europe (Schelhaas et al, 2003) or the FORWIND database (Forzieri et al, 2020) whether we could locate the storm in the European forest disturbance map. The European Forest Institute's database on forest disturbances in Europe is non‐spatial, but includes an exhaustive collection of windthrow events in Europe compiled from grey literature sources.…”

“…The distribution and trends of storm‐ and fire‐related disturbances remain difficult to assess, however, as natural disturbances are per definition rare, extreme events that require long‐term observations for robust inference. Several trans‐national efforts have compiled information on both storm‐ and fire‐related disturbances (Forzieri et al, 2020; San‐Miguel‐Ayanz et al, 2012; Schelhaas et al, 2003), but most of these databases are collections of individual cases with a high selection bias, and are neither spatially explicit nor comprehensive. Selection bias arises from higher availability of data in countries with well‐established and long‐running forest monitoring programs, and access restrictions to data in some countries.…”

The effect of root rot and bark-stripping on wind stability of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) = Parastās egles (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) vēja noturības izmaiņas sakņu trupes un stumbra mizas bojājumu ietekmē

“…Pēdējo 20 gadu laikā Eiropā ir fiksēti vairāk nekā 89 tūkst. ziņojumu par mežaudžu bojājumiem, kopumā aptuveni vienu miljonu hektāru lielā platībā, un seši postošākie cikloni radīja mežaudžu bojājumus vairāk nekā 340 miljonu m 3 apjomā (Forzieri et al, 2020). Arī Latvijā ir vērojams mežaudžu krājas un bojājumu apjoma pieaugums, jo īpaši, palielinoties briestaudžu un ciršanas vecumu pārsniegušu audžu īpatsvaram (NMM, 2019).…”

“…In the last 20 years, in Europe more than 89 thousand reports have been recorded about forest stand damages resulting in up to 1 million ha of affected areas in total. More than 340 million m 3 of damaged wood have been estimated after 6 cyclones during that period (Forzieri et al, 2020). Also in Latvia the amount of damaged forest stands has increased along with proportion of old-growth forests (National Forest Inventory (NMM), 2019).…”