Impacts of atmospheric pollution on the plant communities of British acid grasslands

Payne, Richard J.; Stevens, Carly J.; Dise, Nancy B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0463-6885; Gowing, David J.; Pilkington, Michael G.; Phoenix, Gareth K.; Emmett, Bridget A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2713-4389; Ashmore, Michael R.. 2011 Impacts of atmospheric pollution on the plant communities of British acid grasslands. Environmental Pollution, 159 (10). 2602-2608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.009

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Abstract/Summary

Air pollutants are recognised as important agents of ecosystem change but few studies consider the effects of multiple pollutants and their interactions. Here we use ordination, constrained cluster analysis and indicator value analyses to identify potential environmental controls on species composition, ecological groupings and indicator species in a gradient study of UK acid grasslands. The community composition of these grasslands is related to climate, grazing, ozone exposure and nitrogen deposition, with evidence for an interaction between the ecological impacts of base cation and nitrogen deposition. Ozone is a key agent in species compositional change but is not associated with a reduction in species richness or diversity indices, showing the subtly different drivers on these two aspects of ecosystem degradation. Our results demonstrate the effects of multiple interacting pollutants, which may collectively have a greater impact than any individual agent. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.009
Programmes:	CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biogeochemistry
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Emmett
ISSN:	0269-7491
Additional Keywords:	ozone, nitrogen deposition, base cation deposition, ordination, critical loads, biodiversity
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Atmospheric Sciences
Date made live:	22 Feb 2012 15:39 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/16763

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2011.06.009

Programmes:

CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 - 2012 > Biogeochemistry

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Emmett

ISSN:

0269-7491

Additional Keywords:

ozone, nitrogen deposition, base cation deposition, ordination, critical loads, biodiversity