Biophysical factors and management practices are key to shaping forest resilience

Forest management influences key ecosystem services essential for societal well-being. However, how these human activities affect forest resilience under different environmental conditions remains poorly understood. This study investigates how different forest management practices interact with biophysical factors and explores their joint effect on forest resilience globally during 2001-2015. To this aim, we develop a framework that integrates Critical Slowing Down theory, satellite-based vegetation indices, and machine learning. Results show that natural forests without management exhibit the highest resilience among all forest management types, followed by natural forests with management and planted forests. Overall, forest management practices weaken resilience prominently under intensive anthropogenic pressures. However, specific biophysical conditions can reverse this pattern. Planted forests show higher resilience than natural forests when the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration exceeds 1.5 in wet climates, whereas natural forests remain more resilient in drier climates below this threshold. Such threshold reflects the point where water availability becomes sufficient to compensate for the detrimental effects originating from human pressures. Cold temperatures, dense vegetation, and high soil fertility may further enhance the resilience of managed forests to levels typical of natural forests.