Modeling the capacity of riverscapes to support beaver dams

Macfarlane, William W.; Wheaton, Joseph M.; Bouwes, Nicolaas; Jensen, Martha L.; Gilbert, Jordan T.; Hough‐Snee, Nate; Shivik, John A.

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.11.019

Cited by 89 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…By constructing dams, beavers severely alter the stream hydrologic regime, which alters freshwater physical habitat, biotic composition, and habitat connectivity (MacFarlane et al 2015). Changes in hydrologic regime facilitate the invasion of new species, including riverine plants, invertebrates, and fish (Bunn & Arthington, 2002).…”

Section: Beaver Impacts In the Boreal Forest And Lower Latitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tundra be dammed: Beaver colonization of the Arctic

Tape

Jones

Arp

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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Increasing air temperatures are changing the arctic tundra biome. Permafrost is thawing, snow duration is decreasing, shrub vegetation is proliferating, and boreal wildlife is encroaching. Here we present evidence of the recent range expansion of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) into the Arctic, and consider how this ecosystem engineer might reshape the landscape, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes. We developed a remote sensing approach that maps formation and disappearance of ponds associated with beaver activity. Since 1999, 56 new beaver pond complexes were identified, indicating that beavers are colonizing a predominantly tundra region (18,293 km ) of northwest Alaska. It is unclear how improved tundra stream habitat, population rebound following overtrapping for furs, or other factors are contributing to beaver range expansion. We discuss rates and likely routes of tundra beaver colonization, as well as effects on permafrost, stream ice regimes, and freshwater and riparian habitat. Beaver ponds and associated hydrologic changes are thawing permafrost. Pond formation increases winter water temperatures in the pond and downstream, likely creating new and more varied aquatic habitat, but specific biological implications are unknown. Beavers create dynamic wetlands and are agents of disturbance that may enhance ecosystem responses to warming in the Arctic.

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Section: Beaver Impacts In the Boreal Forest And Lower Latitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tundra be dammed: Beaver colonization of the Arctic

Tape

Jones

Arp

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

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“…A perceived barrier to implementing the framework discussed here could be cost. Advances on the production of network co-variates that could be useful in the upscaling steps have been particularly fruitful over the past decade (Beechie et al, 2003;Benda et al, 2007;Alber and Piegay, 2011;Belletti et al, 2013;Bizzi et al, 2013;Roux et al, 2014;Schmitt et al, 2014;Macfarlane et al, 2015;Demarchi et al, 2016a). Many of the data sets required to drive such network-scale analyses are free and their availability is increasing.…”

Section: Plurality Of Approaches For Component Piecesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upscaling site‐scale ecohydraulic models to inform salmonid population‐level life cycle modeling and restoration actions – Lessons from the Columbia River Basin

Wheaton

Bouwes

McHugh

et al. 2017

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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With high-resolution topography and imagery in fluvial environments, the potential to quantify physical fish habitat at the reach scale has never been better. Increased availability of hydraulic, temperature and food availability data and models have given rise to a host of species and life stage specific ecohydraulic fish habitat models ranging from simple, empirical habitat suitability curve driven models, to fuzzy inference systems to fully mechanistic bioenergetic models. However, few examples exist where such information has been upscaled appropriately to evaluate entire fish populations. We present a framework for applying such ecohydraulic models from over 905 sites in 12 sub-watersheds of the Columbia River Basin (USA), to assess status and trends in anadromous salmon populations. We automated the simulation of computational engines to drive the hydraulics, and subsequent ecohydraulic models using cloud computing for over 2075 visits from 2011 to 2015 at 905 sites. We also characterize each site's geomorphic reach type, habitat condition, geomorphic unit assemblage, primary production potential and thermal regime. We then independently produce drainage network-scale models to estimate these same parameters from coarser, remotely sensed data available across entire populations within the Columbia River Basin. These variables give us a basis for imputation of reach-scale capacity estimates across drainage networks. Combining capacity estimates with survival estimates from mark-recapture monitoring allows a more robust quantification of capacity for freshwater life stages (i.e. adult spawning, juvenile rearing) of the anadromous life cycle. We use these data to drive life cycle models of populations, which not only include the freshwater life stages but also the marine and migration life stages through the hydropower system. More fundamentally, we can begin to look at more realistic, spatially explicit, tributary habitat restoration scenarios to examine whether the enormous financial investment on such restoration actions can help recover these populations or prevent their extinction.

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“…Beaver damming can cause major changes in landscape connectivity to occur; increasing water storage on floodplains and reconnecting floodplains with channels (Macfarlane et al ., 2015). Beaver dams can also reduce channel flow velocity (Burchsted and Daniels, 2014) and attenuate storm event hydrographs (Nyssen et al ., 2011) with positive impacts on flood risk alleviation, attributed to the increased storage capacity (Collen and Gibson, 2000) and reduced downstream connectivity (Puttock et al ., 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sediment and nutrient storage in a beaver engineered wetland

Puttock

Graham

Carless

et al. 2018

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Beavers, primarily through the building of dams, can deliver significant geomorphic modifications and result in changes to nutrient and sediment fluxes. Research is required to understand the implications and possible benefits of widespread beaver reintroduction across Europe. This study surveyed sediment depth, extent and carbon/nitrogen content in a sequence of beaver pond and dam structures in South West England, where a pair of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) were introduced to a controlled 1.8 ha site in 2011. Results showed that the 13 beaver ponds subsequently created hold a total of 101.53 ± 16.24 t of sediment, equating to a normalised average of 71.40 ± 39.65 kg m2. The ponds also hold 15.90 ± 2.50 t of carbon and 0.91 ± 0.15 t of nitrogen within the accumulated pond sediment.The size of beaver pond appeared to be the main control over sediment storage, with larger ponds holding a greater mass of sediment per unit area. Furthermore, position within the site appeared to play a role with the upper‐middle ponds, nearest to the intensively‐farmed headwaters of the catchment, holding a greater amount of sediment. Carbon and nitrogen concentrations in ponds showed no clear trends, but were significantly higher than in stream bed sediment upstream of the site.We estimate that >70% of sediment in the ponds is sourced from the intensively managed grassland catchment upstream, with the remainder from in situ redistribution by beaver activity. While further research is required into the long‐term storage and nutrient cycling within beaver ponds, results indicate that beaver ponds may help to mitigate the negative off‐site impacts of accelerated soil erosion and diffuse pollution from agriculturally dominated landscapes such as the intensively managed grassland in this study. © 2018 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Modeling the capacity of riverscapes to support beaver dams

Cited by 89 publications

References 77 publications

Tundra be dammed: Beaver colonization of the Arctic

Tundra be dammed: Beaver colonization of the Arctic

Upscaling site‐scale ecohydraulic models to inform salmonid population‐level life cycle modeling and restoration actions – Lessons from the Columbia River Basin

Sediment and nutrient storage in a beaver engineered wetland

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