Tree-ring-based disturbance reconstruction in interdisciplinary research: Current state and future directions

Disturbances play an important role in forest dynamics. The determination of long-term spatiotemporal characteristics of disturbance regimes is essential for understanding forest dynamics and its shifts under global changes. Tree rings are known to provide detailed insight into both temporal and spatial patterns of forest disturbance history. One of the most commonly used indirect tree-ring techniques for investigating past disturbances is growth release detection (GRD), i.e. the abrupt radial growth increase of trees as a reaction to improved light conditions after the death of a disturbed neighbouring canopy tree or trees. However, there are several issues which have not been addressed so far. Here, an overview of GRD and guide for researchers aiming to incorporate GRD into their research is provided, with focus on conventional running mean methods. The aim is to cover various issues of the GRD procedure such as sampling strategy and data quality, selection of appropriate methods and parameter settings, suggested analysis procedures as well as result presentation. Overall, the importance of GRD incorporation in multidisciplinary studies of forest dynamics is highlighted, as it offers a precise tool for gathering long-term information about past disturbances. Lastly, this paper also suggests several future challenges focused on possible utilization of GRD in mainstream ecology to answer long-standing global ecological questions and improve understanding of past processes in forest ecosystems.