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In a changing world, riparian forests are coming under more and more stress from biotic threats. This impacts all stages from saplings to older trees. One of the most dominant biotic threats are alien species and eruptive pest species. Sustainable silvicultural methods are required to reduce the risk of such biotic threats. We investigated the influence of climate, site, tree, and silvicultural characteristics on leaf damage by insect pests or fungal pathogens, herbaceous alien plant species, browsing, and the abundance of native tree saplings. Transects across the Danube-Mura-Drava biosphere reserve from Austria in the northwest to Serbia in the southeast, each containing 7–8 plots, were established to assess tree and site characteristics, regeneration, as well as fungal and insect leaf damage. We found that the horizontal stand structure affected insect leaf damage in different ways. Insect leaf damage was positively …