Projected climate change, with increasing disturbances and extensive human impact, place temperate montane forests (TMF) under pressure and it is uncertain how these ecosystems will respond to these changes. Palaeoecological data (e.g. sedimentary fossil pollen, charcoal, plant and insect remains) provide means to assess long-term change in TMF in relation to the changes in climate and disturbance regime. Due to the lack of knowledge on long-term (millennial) forest change at the continentality gradient, we propose to investigate TMF dynamics and its drivers in three distinct biogeographical regions in Central Eastern Europe. By using high resolution, interdisciplinary multiproxy approach we expect to detect different disturbance factors driving TMF change (including fire), and determine their long-term diversity change under different climate conditions and disturbance regimes. Our findings will have crucial role for understanding the future climate-driven vegetation change, which still lacks broader continentality scales from the past.
