Data and Code from: Sheltered or suppressed? Tree regeneration in unmanaged European forests

Tree regeneration is a key demographic process influencing long-term forest dynamics. It is driven by climate, disturbances, biotic factors, and their interactions. Thus, predictions of tree regeneration are challenging due to complex feedbacks along the wide climatic gradients covered by most tree species. We developed statistical models based on >50,000 recruitment events observed for 24 tree species in an extensive permanent plot network (6,540 plots from 299 unmanaged European temperate, boreal, and subalpine forests) covering a wide climatic gradient. This repository stores csv files with response and explanatory variables and R-Scripts that are needed to run the analysis and create the figures that are presented in the accompanying article titled "Sheltered or suppressed? Tree regeneration in unmanaged European forests" which was published in Journal of Ecology in 2023. Our study shows that competition between trees towards climatic stress decreases systematically but depends on species stress tolerance to climate and shade. These findings explain within- and between-species differences in tree recruitment patterns in European temperate forests. Moreover, our findings imply that projections of forest dynamics along wide climatic gradients and under climate change must accommodate both competition and positive interactions, as they strongly affect rates of community turnover.