Wind-driven collective dynamics dominate tree response in a planted Scots pine forest stand

Wind-induced tree motion in forests reflects the interaction between atmospheric forcing and tree-specific mechanical properties, yet the extent to which stand-scale response is governed by coherent wind forcing or by individual tree characteristics remains unclear under field conditions. Here, wind-induced response of 28 neighboring trees in a planted Scots pine forest stand was analyzed using singular value decomposition and maximum covariance analysis to identify coupled wind–tree components and to partition tree response into collective and individual shares. The results reveal that tree response is dominated by a single wind-driven coupled component, onto which the response of all trees projects to a large extent. This enables a consistent decomposition into a collective response, representing the shared stand-scale dynamics, and an individual contribution capturing tree-specific deviations. Collective participation is systematically associated with alignment to the dominant wind-driven component, whereas individual contributions exhibit greater variability and do not show a consistent dependence on intrinsic dynamic properties or local structural factors such as neighborhood configuration. Partial correlation analysis indicates that neither fundamental sway frequency nor crowding index explains additional variation in wind–tree coupling beyond that associated with participation in the dominant collective response. These findings demonstrate that, in the structurally homogeneous stand, tree response is primarily governed by stand-scale wind loading, expressed by a single wind-driven coupled mode accounting for approximately 82 % of the variance in the aligned tree response field. Individual tree properties primarily modulate deviations from this dominant collective response. This provides a reduced-order, process-based perspective on wind–tree interaction in the planted Scots pine stand and highlights the central role of collective dynamics under natural wind conditions.