Interferes with atmosphere in treeless grasslands (8)

I believe the answer is:

prairies

'treeless grasslands' is the definition.
(I know this)

'interferes with atmosphere' is the wordplay.
'interferes' becomes 'pries'.
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'atmosphere' becomes 'air' (synonyms).
'pries' placed around 'air' is 'PRAIRIES'.

'in' is the link.

(Another definition for prairies that I've seen is " Treeless grassy plains".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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