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The effect of prescribed burning for conservation management of plant communities is controversial for moorlands growing on peat. These ecosystems provide many services that may be damaged by fire, hence it is important to fully assess its impact on all aspects of ecosystem structure and function experimentally over relatively long time‐scales. This paper describes change in community composition, major plant species, and plant functional types on moorland on peat in upland Britain over 60 years subject to 3 burning treatments after an initial burn in 1954/1955: no further burn and burning at 10‐ and 20‐year intervals (all ± sheep grazing). Data were analysed using multivariate and univariate methods. Vegetation composition and individual species abundance reflected the degree of disturbance. The least disturbed was dominated by Calluna vulgaris and pleurocarpous mosses, whereas the most disturbed treatment (burned every 10 years) had greater Eriophorum vaginatum, Sphagnum spp., acrocarpous mosses, liverworts, and lichens. The 20‐year treatment was intermediate in response disturbance. Repeated burning increased species abundance‐weighted Ellenberg values for moisture, reaction, light through time, and fertility; the exception was the 10‐year rotation for fertility. These confirm that prescribed burning is not deleterious to peat‐forming species (Eriophorum spp. and Sphagnum spp.), indeed these species were found in greater abundance in frequently burned treatments. It also confirms that a no‐burn policy will lead to increasing dominance of C. vulgaris, a flammable, fire‐adapted shrub, which increases summer wildfire risk. These results inform conservation management policy for moorland vegetation growing on peat; for this site, a 20‐year prescribed burning rotation is recommended.

Summary1. Species distribution models are static models for the distribution of a species, based on Hutchinson's niche concept. They make probabilistic predictions about the distribution of a species, but do not have a temporal interpretation. In contrast, density-structured models based on categorical abundance data make it possible to incorporate population dynamics into species distribution modelling. 2. Using dynamic species distribution models, temporal aspects of a species' distribution can be investigated, including the predictability of future abundance categories and the expected persistence times of local populations, and how these may respond to environmental or anthropogenic drivers. 3. We built density-structured models for two intertidal marine invertebrates, the Lusitanian trochid gastropods Phorcus lineatus and Gibbula umbilicalis, based on 9 years of field data from around the United Kingdom. Abundances were recorded on a categorical scale, and stochastic models for year-to-year changes in abundance category were constructed with winter mean sea surface temperature (SST) and wave fetch (a measure of the exposure of a shore) as explanatory variables. 4. Both species were more likely to be present at sites with high SST, but differed in their responses to wave fetch. Phorcus lineatus had more predictable future abundance and longer expected persistence times than G. umbilicalis. This is consistent with the longer lifespan of P. lineatus. 5. Where data from multiple time points are available, dynamic species distribution models of the kind described here have many applications in population and conservation biology. These include allowing for changes over time when combining historical and contemporary data, and predicting how climate change might alter future abundance conditional on current distributions.

Seabird tracking has become an ever more popular tool to aid environmental procedures such as the designation of marine protected areas and environmental impact assessments. However, samples used are usually small and little consideration is given to experimental design and sampling protocol. European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis were tracked using GPS technology over three breeding seasons and the following foraging trip characteristics: trip duration, trip distance, maximum distance travelled from the colony, size of area used and direction travelled from colony were determined for each foraging trip. The effect of sex, year of study, breeding site, number and age of chicks and the timing of tracking on foraging behaviour were investigated using a General Estimation Equation model. A range of sampling scenarios reflecting likely field sampling were also tested to compare how foraging behaviour differed depending on composition of the sample of birds tracked. Trip distance, trip duration, maximum distance travelled and size of area used were all significantly affected by the breeding site, and the number of chicks a tracked adult was raising. The effect of sex was also seen when examining trip distance, trip duration and the maximum distance travelled. The direction travelled on a foraging trip was also significantly affected by breeding site. This study highlights the importance of sampling regime and the influence that year, sex, age, number of chicks and breeding site can have on the foraging trip characteristics for this coastal feeding seabird. Given the logistical and financial constraints in tracking large numbers of individuals, this study identifies the need for researchers to consider the composition of their study sample to ensure any identified foraging areas are as representative as possible of the whole colony’s foraging area.