Assessing disturbances in surviving primary forests of Europe.

ABSTRACT: Primary forests are of paramount importance for biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are scarce and threatened by human activities. However, a comprehensive assessment of the magnitude of disturbances in these forests is lacking, due in part to their incomplete mapping. We sought to provide a systematic assessment of disturbances in primary forests in Europe based on remotely sensed imagery from 1986 to 2020. We assessed the total area disturbed, rate of area disturbed, and disturbance severity, at the country, biogeographical, and continental level. Maps of potential primary forests were used to mitigate gaps in maps of documented primary forests. We found a widespread and significant increase in primary forest disturbance rates acros

SUBMITTER: Barredo JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11959323 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature