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• Microclimate is more variable in managed compared to old-growth forests • Early successional stages are less thermally buffered in managed stands • It takes 50–60 years after clearcutting to recover forest microclimate conditions • Adopting a harvest inspired by natural forest dynamics is a suitable strategy for climate smart forestry Microclimate is a key driver of forest dynamics and shapes the response of forest organisms to global warming. The spatial and temporal variability of microclimate is strongly affected by forest management, so it is important to know how microclimate varies along successional gradients of managed forests, and how microclimatic dynamics in managed forests differ from those in old-growth forests. We measured forest understorey microclimate along successional gradients in regularly harvested forests and old-growth beech forests affected only by natural disturbances in the Western Carpathians (Central Europe) over a period of three years. We analysed how temperature and vapour pressure deficit (VPD) depended on forest structure and stand age, and how microclimate of managed stands differed from natural old-growth forests. Across forest landscapes we found that microclimatic conditions in managed forests were much more variable than in old-growth forests. Threshold analysis indicated that it takes approximately 54 years after clearing for microclimate to recover to conditions typical of old-growth and mature managed stands. Current forest management cycles create a microclimate landscape that is more dynamic in both space and time than the conditions to which many forest organisms are adapted in old-growth temperate forests in Europe. Adopting a harvesting approach inspired by temporal dynamics of old-growth forests, such as small-scale clearings with remnant trees providing microclimate refugia, is a suitable strategy for climate smart forestry to maintain microclimate buffering in managed forests. By increasing thermal habitat continuity, such options may help integrate biodiversity conservation targets into forest management programmes under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Liberating liana-infested future crop trees (FCTs) benefits both timber yields and carbon sequestration. • The NPV of $1 per hectare invested in liberation of 5 infested FCTs is $13.27 at year 30 for carbon alone. • The IRR of that investment in forest management is 106% • Any biodiversity impacts of liana cutting on selected FCTs are expected to be small. Infestations of trees by woody climbing plants (i.e., lianas) are common and increasing in an estimated 250 Mha of the 1 billion hectares of mixed-species tropical and temperate forest subjected to selective logging. Cutting lianas that impede the growth of future crop trees (FCTs) in these forests would sequester carbon at low cost and increase timber yields. We estimate that application of this treatment to five liana-infested FCTs per hectare across the 250 Mha of selectively logged forest would result in 0.8 PgCO 2 of additional carbon removals by the liberated trees over 30 years at a direct cost of well less than $1.00 MgCO 2 −1. The same treatment could also be applied in forests not destined for logging where liana infestations were exacerbated by prior anthropogenic disturbances. If the numbers of trees liberated from lianas is kept small, undesired impacts on biodiversity will be minimized. One-Sentence Summary: Liberating future crop trees from lianas is a cost-effective way to increase rates of carbon sequestration, increase timber yields, and restore degraded forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]