2.1 Study sites:
The Carpathian Mountains constitute one of Europe’s most pristine forested ecoregions, where fragments of primary forest remain protected from harvesting by complex montane topography. The ecoregion is broadly classified as cool-humid, with mean mid-altitude (1000 m a.s.l.) annual temperatures of 4.5°C and precipitation of 1100mm over the past half a century (Spinoni et al. 2015). Quantifying forest dynamics in the Carpathians is a primary objective of the REMOTE (REsearch MOntane Temperate) Forest network, an expanding dendroecological forest inventory project. The REMOTE inventory was initialized in 2010 as an effort to locate stands of primary forests in both protected areas and isolated unprotected localities throughout the mountain range. Sites were defined with the assistance of park managers and other local experts (www.remoteforests.org; Svoboda et al. 2014).