Key message: Larch trees respond to stand opening with an approximately 4-year delay of growth, and low precipitation in July limits radial growth after a windthrow event. Precise cross-dating of disturbance events is crucial to understanding the functioning of forest stands, and may help explain ongoing ecological processes in a forest. Tree rings are very often used to reconstruct the history of disturbances and to study the response of trees to climatic factors. This study analyzed how quickly European larch can benefit from an abrupt change after catastrophic windthrow events and the extent of trees’ sensitivity to climate. The study is based on cores from 83 larch trees collected in a post-disturbance 100 ha plot established after a catastrophic windstorm in 2004 in the Slovakian High Tatras. Growth release was calculated from the percentage of growth change (PGC) measured in tree rings. The time lag between the disturbance event and release was related to tree diameter at breast height, tree age, and tree’s previous growth. The time lag between the year of the event and the year of growth reaction was 4.6 years on average (median 4 years) in a multi-aged group of trees. The climate analyses employed residual chronology. The new environmental conditions in the post-disturbance area have altered the trees’ growth reaction to climate; in particular, they show sensitivity to water deficit in July.

Cylowa Zerwa landslide – debris flow located on the northern slope of Mt. Babia Góra (1725 m a.s.l.) within the 400 m wide altitude interval (1430-1024 m a.s.l.) is a knowable object which however has not been sufficiently noticed in geomorphological research. This paper, based on geomorphological, geological and dendrochronological investigations, as well as LiDAR data analysis, develops the following issues which describe the functioning of this object during the last ca. 150 years: Cylowa Zerwa in the gravity induced mass movements system of Mt. Babia Góra; relief of the landslide – debris flow and surrounding areas; stages of changes in limit and relief of the mass movement area during the last 150 years; relief elements of the Cylowa Zerwa which are related to debris flow; relationship between dates of the Cylowa Zerwa activation with annual spruce increments. The Cylowa Zerwa, as the only one among Mt. Babia Góra landslides studied, is distinguished by a clear bipartite relief – the upper segment is represented by rock packages, whereas landforms of the middle and lower segments are similar to those originated in the conditions of debris flow. The Cylowa Zerwa landslide – debris flow shows significant education values and it is a remarkable geotourist object.

Information about climate–growth relationships is crucial for predicting the potential climatic impact on tree species, especially those growing on the edges of their distribution range, for instance, in high-elevation forests. This study aimed to determine changes in the relationships between tree-ring widths and daily climatic data in high-elevation forests in the Western Carpathians over time. Climate–growth relationships were calculated to obtain the TRWI (tree-ring-width index) chronology (based on 104 trees) and day-wise aggregated data for temperature (mean, minimum, and maximum) and sums of precipitation. The radial growth of stone pine was mostly determined by the mean temperature in the period between mid-June (21st) and the beginning of July (4th) for the critical 14-day window width (r = 0.44). The negative influence of precipitation on the radial growth occurred in summer (r = −0.35) and overlapped with the period of the positive influence of temperature. Dendroclimatic studies based on daily data may define the exact periods (expressed in calendar days) that influence the radial growth of trees much better than the commonly used monthly means. This is particularly important in analysing the growth of trees at high elevations, where the climatic factor strongly limits radial growth.

Recently, commercial forests have been proposed to play a greater role in increasing the stock of deadwood. This causes a conflict between the biological and economic benefits of these forests. To find a solution to this problem in a large Natura 2000 area in southern Poland, we analyzed the...