“…At the same time, encroaching trees take up more and more water through their root systems, which contributes to further drying out of the peatland. Often, as part of the active protection of peatlands, it is recommended that trees are removed (Czerepko et al, 2018). However, only persistent changes in the depth of the water table resulted in obvious changes in vegetation, while no observable effects of drainage were observed with transient lowering of the water table (Talbot et al, 2010) or during short-term experimental drought (Andrews et al, 2021).…”