Increasing canopy mortality affects the future demographic structure of Europe's forests

•Canopy mortality has consistently increased across Europe in the past three decades•Increasing canopy will have profound changes on forest demography•Current rates of hold aging trend Europe's forests•Future increases might lead to widespread decline age Land use and climate change are challenging forests around globe. An important indicator increasing pressure ecosystems is tree mortality, that is, proportion trees dying per year from both natural human causes. Increasing can substantially alter demography toward younger age, which negative consequences for biodiversity carbon storage because old provide valuable habitat high stocks. We show all decades. Those historic and—if further—push age. In order sustain services provided by society, developing strategies address should be a key priority policy management. pervasive impacts dynamics. Yet, large-scale trends their effects remain poorly quantified despite role pools biodiversity. 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To account this, set statistical tools prevent detection false arising noise experimental procedures). absence few reliably cannot taken encourage research verify improve Further work aim underlying clarify whether responsible simple simulation-based meant predict Uneven-aged stands, cover approximately 28% area,21Forest represented modeling, instance. Future elaborate simulation approaches used investigate detail. Here, demography. paramount carefully ongoing better drivers, implement safeguard achieved via resistance resilience by, e.g., counteracting homogenization; conserving existing promoting old-growth forests, especially places low; (3) accounting planning; (4) considering managing bio-based economy. conclude