Abstract
Understanding the drivers of forest transitions is relevant to inform effective forest conservation. We investigate pathways of forest transitions in the United States (1920-2010), France (1850-2010), and Austria (1830-2010). By combining evidence from forest inventories with the forest model CRAFT, we first quantify how change in forest area (ΔA), maximum biomass density (ΔBd(max) ), and actual biomass as fraction of maximum biomass (ΔF(max) ) shaped forest dynamics. Second, to investigate the connections between forest change and societal resource use, or social metabolism, we quantify the importance of selected proximate and underlying socio-metabolic drivers. We find that agricultural intensification and reduced forest grazing correlated most with positive ΔA and ΔBd(max) . By contrast, change in biomass imports or harvest did not explain forest change. Our findings highlight the importance of forest growth conditions in explaining long-term forest dynamics, and demonstrate the distinct ways in which resource use drove forest change.