DOI: 10.5061/dryad.762b8
title: Data from: Resilience of peatland ecosystem services over millennial timescales: evidence from a degraded British bog

description: 1. Many peatland ecosystems in Europe have become degraded in the last
 century owing to the effects of drainage, burning, pollution, and climate
 change. There is a need to understand the drivers of peatland degradation
 because management and restoration interventions can affect the natural
 ecohydrological dynamics of such sensitive environments, and are
 expensive. However, if given enough time peatlands may have the ability to
 recover spontaneously without deliberate action. 2. We use a detailed
 multiproxy palaeoecological dataset from a degraded raised bog in Northern
 England to examine its ecosystem stability and long-term dynamics in
 response to anthropogenic disturbance over a variety of timescales. One
 feature of many degraded peatlands (including our study site) is the local
 dominance of Molinia caerulea (purple moor-grass), which has expanded at
 the expense of characteristic peatland plants, including sedges and
 Sphagnum mosses. 3. Our data show that there has been a long history of
 human impacts at the site which have culminated in its current
 unfavourable condition. Several distinct episodes of past peat cutting are
 evident as hiatuses in peat accumulation; however, peat accumulation and
 plant community structure have subsequently recovered spontaneously. The
 appearance of M. caerulea occurs coevally with an unprecedented variety of
 recent anthropogenic impacts, all of which have arguably contributed to
 providing a suitable environment for its rise to dominance. We have dated
 the appearance of M. caerulea to the latter half of the twentieth century
 which corresponds to a number of anthropogenic press disturbances,
 including: dust loading from post-war expansion of the adjacent quarry;
 burning; drainage; airborne pollution; and contamination from soil dust
 and agrochemicals. 4. Synthesis Our study demonstrates the importance of
 palaeoecology for understanding the trajectories of peatland development
 and ecosystem dynamics, including their resilience and resistance to pulse
 and press disturbances. We show that peatlands have the capability to
 recover spontaneously from severe disturbances such as peat cutting,
 albeit on timescales much longer than those applied to monitoring of
 restoration efforts. The implications are relevant for determining whether
 it is better to manage and restore peatlands, or to allow them to recover
 naturally without human intervention.
description: SM_CN_OKCarbon and Nitrogen data from Swarth Moor (cores SM1-3)SM_SCPshortcores_OKSpheroidal carbonaceous particle data from short cores from Swarth MoorSM1_BD_OKCore SM1: Bulk density dataSM1_geochem_OKCore SM1: Geochemical dataSM1_LOI_OKCore SM1: Loss-on-ignition dataSM1_macrofossils_OKCore SM1: % Plant macrofossil dataSM1_pollen_OKCore SM1: Pollen count dataSM1_SCP_OKCore SM1: Spheroidal carbonaceous particle dataSM1_testateamoebae_OKCore SM1: % Testate amoeba data and water table reconstructionSM2_BD_OKCore SM2: Bulk density dataSM2_geochem_OKCore SM2: Geochemical dataSM2_LOI_OKCore SM2: Loss-on-ignition dataSM2_macrofossils_OKCore SM2: % Plant macrofossil dataSM2_pollen_OKCore SM2: Pollen count dataSM2_SCP_OKCore SM2: Spheroidal carbonaceous particle dataSM2_testateamoebae_OKCore SM2: % Testate amoeba data and water table reconstructionSM3_BD_OKCore SM3: Bulk density dataSM3_geochem_OKCore SM3: Geochemical dataSM3_LOI_OKCore SM3: Loss-on-ignition dataSM3_macrofossils_OKCore SM3: % Plant macrofossil dataSM3_pollen_OKCore SM3: Pollen count dataSM3_SCP_OKCore SM3: Spheroidal carbonaceous particle dataSM3_testateamoebae_OKCore SM3: % Testate amoeba data and water table reconstruction