Title of the paper: Methodical approaches for modelling the long-distance dispersal of European beech from inventory data at forest management level: Potential density of beech regeneration depending on the distance to the potential seed trees. Utilization of natural beech regeneration as a part of the forest conversion is an interesting alternative to cost-intensive planting. The range of effective dispersal of beech regeneration is of interest for the spatial assessment of regeneration potential. Aim of the study was to investigate the influence of the distance to the nearest potential seed source on the potential regeneration density and to illustrate the influence of vectors on secondary seed dispersal. Regeneration potential is a new method for deriving functions for the effective dispersal of natural beech regeneration. Based on inventory data from the permanent sample inventory in the Saxonian state forest, the regeneration potential was determined as the maximum possible regeneration density at a given distance to nearest potential seed source (Figure 2). To determine distance to next potential seed source both stand-wise inventory data (Table 3) and remote sensing data (Figure 5), containing the location of beech and beech stands, were used and results compared (Figure 6). After data selection a negative exponential function was adjusted. The investigation showed that the distance to the next potential seed tree is a very important factor for the potential regeneration density. The study highlights that highest regeneration densities are near the old beeches (Figure 7). With increasing distance to the next potential seed tree, regeneration density decreases sharply. In the present study dispersal distances up to 700 m were found. No beech regeneration was found at 800 to 3800 m. The results indicate that beech nuts are brought from the mother tree and, in addition to barochory, zoochorus seed dispersal is of great importance in the succession of coniferous stands. Therefore, the position of seed trees is an important information for silvicultural planning to estimate potential regeneration densities.