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Developing predictive models of wind damage in Austrian forests

  • Original Paper
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Annals of Forest Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

• Context

Among natural disturbances, wind storms cause the greatest damage to forests in Austria.

• Aim

The aim of this study is to quantify the effects of site, stand and meteorological attributes on the wind disturbance regime at the operational scale of forest stands.

• Methods

We used binomial generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) to quantify the probability of damage events and linear mixed models (LMMs) to explain the damage intensity at the forest stand level in four management units with a total forest area of approximately 28,800 ha.

• Results

Timber stock volume, stand age, elevation, previous disturbances, wind gust speed and frozen state of soil contributed in explaining probability of wind damage. While the model of disturbance probability correctly classified 90 % of all cases in the data set (specificity 95 %, sensitivity 26 %), the model for damage intensity explained only low percentages of the variation in the observed damage data (full model R 2 = 0.38, fixed effects-only model R 2 = 0.09; cross-validation in the four forest management units yielded similar R 2 values).

• Conclusion

The developed models indicated that decreasing the proportion of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst), limiting stand age and reducing the timber stock in course of tending treatments in stands exposed to wind disturbance can mitigate the risk and the expected damage intensity. High gust speeds and salvage cuts after earlier damage increase the probability of further wind disturbance events.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the Austrian Federal Forests for making internal data available. Two anonymous referees provided detailed and helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP), under grant no. K09AC0K00042.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Silviculture, Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna, Peter-Jordan Straße 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Ferenc Pasztor, Werner Rammer & Manfred J. Lexer

  2. Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Vienna, Austria

    Christoph Matulla & Maja Zuvela-Aloise

Authors
  1. Ferenc Pasztor
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  2. Christoph Matulla
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  3. Maja Zuvela-Aloise
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  4. Werner Rammer
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  5. Manfred J. Lexer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ferenc Pasztor.

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Handling Editor: Thomas Wohlgemuth

Contribution of the co-authors

Ferenc PASZTOR: designing the experiment, database reconstruction, running the data analysis and writing the paper

Christoph MATULLA: providing data and writing the paper

Maja ZUVELA-ALOISE: providing data and writing the paper

Werner RAMMER: database reconstruction and writing the paper

Manfred J LEXER: designing the experiment, supervising the work, coordinating the research project and writing the paper

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Pasztor, F., Matulla, C., Zuvela-Aloise, M. et al. Developing predictive models of wind damage in Austrian forests. Annals of Forest Science 72, 289–301 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-014-0386-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-014-0386-0

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