Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>
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<jats:p>Peatlands are valued for ecosystem services including carbon storage, water provision and biodiversity. However, there are concerns about the impacts of land management and pollution on peatland vegetation and function.</jats:p>
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<jats:p>We investigated how prescribed vegetation burning, atmospheric pollution and grazing are related to vegetation communities and cover of four key taxa (<jats:italic>Sphagnum</jats:italic> spp., <jats:italic>Calluna vulgaris, Eriophorum vaginatum</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Campylopus introflexus</jats:italic>) using two datasets from a total of 2,013 plots across 95 peatland sites in the UK.</jats:p>
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<jats:p>Non‐metric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance showed differences in vegetation community composition between burned and unburned plots at regional and national scales.</jats:p>
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<jats:p>Analysis showed that burned sites had less <jats:italic>Sphagnum</jats:italic> and greater <jats:italic>C. vulgaris</jats:italic> cover on a national scale. On a regional scale, plots burned between 2 and 10 years ago had greater cover of invasive moss <jats:italic>C. introflexus</jats:italic> and less <jats:italic>E. vaginatum</jats:italic> than unburned sites.</jats:p>
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<jats:p>Livestock presence was associated with less <jats:italic>Sphagnum</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>C. vulgaris</jats:italic>, while atmospheric pollution was associated with less <jats:italic>Sphagnum</jats:italic>, but greater <jats:italic>C. introflexus</jats:italic> cover, and appeared to have more impact on burned sites.</jats:p>
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<jats:p><jats:italic>Synthesis and applications</jats:italic>. Burning, grazing and atmospheric pollution are associated with peatland vegetation composition and cover of key species, including <jats:italic>Sphagnum</jats:italic>. We suggest that, to promote cover of peat‐forming species, peatlands should not be routinely burned or heavily grazed. Current or historical atmospheric pollution may hinder peat‐forming species, particularly on burned sites.</jats:p>
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