Managing European Alpine forests with close-to-nature forestry to improve climate change mitigation and multifunctionality

The repository contains the data supporting the findings of the study: Managing European Alpine forests with close-to-nature forestry to improve climate change mitigation and multifunctionality Abstract: Close-to-nature forestry (CNF) has a long tradition in European Alpine forest management, playing a crucial role in ensuring the continuous provision of biodiversity and forest ecosystem services (BES), including protection against natural hazards. Climate change causes, however, huge uncertainties about the future applicability of CNF in the Alpine region. The question arises, whether current CNF practices are still suitable for adopting forests to climate change impacts while meeting the increasing societal demands regarding Alpine forests, including their potential contibution to climate change mitigation.To answer this question, we simulated forest development using the ForClim forest model at two Alpine study sites, together representing a large biogeographic gradient from high-elevation inner Alpine (Switzerland) and lower-elevation south-eastern Alpine forests (Slovenia). The simulations considered three climate scenarios (historical climate, SSP2‑4.5 and SSP5-8.5) and alternative management strategies, including both current CNF management practices and climate-adapted versions. Using a multi-criteria decision analysis framework, we assessed the joint impacts of climate and management on key BES of the investigated regions, including carbon sequestration (CS) inside and outside the forest ecosystem boundary. The effects of climate change varied, both among and within the study sites along environmental gradients. In the inner Alpine study site, ecosystem services were more sensitive to climate change and the CS potentials decreased under current CNF management practices, especially at lower elevations. This adverse effect could be partly mitigated by fostering the use of climate-adapted tree species. However, the climate-adapted CNF variant did not meet multiple management objectives equally well: while protection from gravitations hazards and timber production also benefited from the adaptation strategy, biodiversity benefited from CNF variants with low intensity and no management. In conclusion, adaptive measures are urgently required for CNF to continue fulfilling its crucial role in European Alpine forests, especially on forest sites and elevation that are expected to be particularly vulnerable to climate change. In combination with less-intensive or unmanaged areas, CNF provides a management portfolio allowing European Alpine forests to meet the demands of future society. Data: There is one folder for each case study, including: simulated biodiverstiy and ecosystem service indicators forest stand metadata normlized utility values for indicators partial utility values for biodiversity and ecosystem service groups This study was conducted as part of the ONEforest project, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement Nº 101000406.