Long-term effects of rotational prescribed burning and low-intensity sheep grazing on blanket-bog plant communities

Lee, Hyohyemi; Alday, Josu G.; Rose, Rob J.; O'Reilly, John; Marrs, Rob H.. 2013 Long-term effects of rotational prescribed burning and low-intensity sheep grazing on blanket-bog plant communities. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50 (3). 625-635. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12078

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Abstract/Summary

1. The importance of peatlands is being increasingly recognized internationally for both the conservation of biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services; strategies are being developed world-wide to help maintain their integrity. Prescribed burning has been highlighted as a threat with considerable debate over its use as it is perceived to produce a Calluna vulgaris monoculture and a decline in preferred peat-forming species. 2. We investigated the impact of prescribed burning on vegetation composition and diversity in a long-term experiment at Moor House NNR in northern England. The study comprised a comparison between no-burn reference plots last burned in ca. 1924 and an experiment where all plots were burned in 1954/5. Within the experiment, the effects of very light sheep grazing vs. no grazing and three burning rotations (no-burn since 1954/5, repeat-burning at 10- and 20-year intervals) were tested. 3. Calluna vulgaris and Hypnum jutlandicum cover and bryophyte species richness increased in the least-disturbed, no-burn reference plots, but bryophyte cover did not. Lichen diversity declined. 4. Within the formal experiment, low-intensity sheep grazing had little impact but there were substantive changes produced by the different burning rotations. There was divergence between the burning rotation treatments with the least-disturbed, no-burn treatment changing towards a C. vulgaris–H. jutlandicum community, whereas the most-disturbed 10-year rotation had a much greater abundance of both Eriophorum and Sphagnum spp. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our findings suggest that blanket-bog vegetation on peat responds to prescribed burning in a complex manner. Where burn return interval is long (>20 years), C. vulgaris becomes dominant and there was no evidence that preferred peat-forming species (Eriophorum/Sphagnum) increased. Where burn return interval is short (10 years), E. vaginatum/Sphagnum abundance increased. We found no evidence to suggest that prescribed burning was deleterious to the abundance of peat-forming species; indeed, it was found to favour them. These results inform conservation management policy for blanket bogs in the UK and more generally for future wildfire-mitigation strategies on dwarf-shrub-dominated peatlands elsewhere. Some lessons for the management of long-term experimental studies are also discussed.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12078
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Parr
ISSN:	0021-8901
Additional Keywords:	conservation, fire, mixed-effects modelling, moorland, peatland, principal response curves, species composition
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	04 Sep 2014 11:09 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/508144

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