Smokey the Beaver: Beaver‐Dammed Riparian Corridors Stay Green During Wildfire Throughout the Western USA

Fairfax, Emily; Whittle, Andrew

doi:10.1002/bes2.1795

Cited by 4 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Our study supports previous work that demonstrated precipitation had little influence on surface water stored in beaver ponds at the landscape‐scale (Hood and Bayley 2008). Even if beaver densities remain stagnant or decline through time, the accumulation of abandoned ponds that continue to store surface water can preserve important ecological functions like mitigating drought effects (Hood and Bayley 2008), offering refugia during wildfires (Fairfax and Whittle 2020) and providing essential aquatic habitats to the numerous other species that thrive in beaver‐altered environments (Cunningham et al 2007, Karraker and Gibbs 2009, Nummi and Holopainen 2014, Nummi et al 2019a). Slowing or retaining water on the landscape is also a common goal of ecological restoration efforts designed to reduce flooding and export of sediment and nutrient into receiving water bodies (LCCMR 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relics of beavers past: time and population density drive scale‐dependent patterns of ecosystem engineering

et al. 2021

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Like many ecological processes, natural disturbances exhibit scale-dependent dynamics that are largely a function of the magnitude, frequency and scale at which they are assessed. Ecosystem engineers create patch-scale disturbances that affect ecological processes, yet we know little about how these effects scale across space or vary through time.Here, we investigate how patch disturbances by beavers Castor canadensis, ecosystem engineers renowned for their pond-creation behavior, affect ecological processes across space and time. We evaluated how beaver population recovery influenced surface water dynamics in relation to population density over 70 years across multiple spatial scales (pond, watershed and regional) in northern Minnesota. Surface water area was positively related to population density at the watershed scale; however, despite variation in beaver densities (and therefore surface water area) at the watershed scale, regional-scale surface water area was stable through time. This stability appears to have been driven by asynchronous beaver density fluctuations among watersheds, combined with the increasing importance of abandoned ponds. Beavers initially created and occupied larger ponds with greater surface water area, but through time shifted towards occupying smaller ponds. As ponds accumulated on the landscape proportionally more surface water was stored within abandoned ponds, which offset the smaller size of occupied ponds. Beaver engineering -driven by density-dependent mechanisms and the legacy effects from abandoned ponds -not only follows general patterns of patch disturbance dynamics by creating a spatial mosaic of patches, but the organism-created mosaic also appears to generate ecological stability at greater spatial scales. We suggest restoring beavers to landscapes is a viable method for increasing surface water storage and will ultimately help advance numerous conservation and rewilding objectives. Our study demonstrates that ecosystem engineering effects can be scale-dependent, indicating researchers should evaluate the ecological impact of engineers across diverse spatiotemporal scales to fully understand their functional roles in ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relics of beavers past: time and population density drive scale‐dependent patterns of ecosystem engineering

et al. 2021

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“…But as we and others have demonstrated, remote sensing data can also be used to understand how animals shape ecosystem dynamics themselves. For instance, satellite imagery has been used to identify how spatiotemporal fluctuations in spawning salmon abundance influences forest productivity (Kieran et al 2021), how beavermodified environments buffer riparian ecosystems against wildfire (Fairfax & Whittle 2020), and how grazing pressure from migrating bison (Bison bison) alters the quality and phenology of the grasses they forage upon (Geremia et al 2019). Airborne LiDAR has revealed the effects of elephant (Loxodonta africana) foraging on the structural diversity, rates of treefall, and vegetation height of savanna woodlands (Asner et al 2009;Asner & Levick 2012;Asner et al 2016;Davies et al 2018).…”

Section: Harnessing High-resolution Remote Sensing Data To Assess Ani...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A cosmic view of ‘tundra gardens’: satellite imagery provides a landscape-scale perspective of Arctic fox ecosystem engineering

Johnson‐Bice

Roth

Markham

2022

Preprint

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Animal ecology has benefitted greatly from advancements in remote sensing technology and data availability in recent decades. Most animal ecology studies using remote sensing data have focused on assessing how environmental characteristics shape animal abundance, distribution, or behavior. But the growing availability of high-resolution remote sensing data offers new opportunities to study how animals, in turn, shape ecosystems. We use high-spatiotemporal resolution Sentinel-2 satellite imagery to evaluate the effects of Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) denning activity on vegetation. Arctic fox dens are characterized with unique vegetation relative to the surrounding area, presumably due to decades of nutrient accumulation and bioturbation. We use an imagery-derived metric (NDVI) to compare maximum plant productivity and plant phenology patterns on Arctic fox dens vs. reference sites, i.e., points generated within areas of preferred denning habitat as predicted from a habitat selection analysis. We show that high-resolution satellite imagery can be used effectively to quantify the effects of Arctic fox denning activity on vegetation. Plant productivity and the rate of green up were both greater on fox dens compared to reference sites. Productivity on these preferred-habitat (reference) sites was lower than average productivity on the tundra (i.e., random sites), indicating that foxes primarily establish dens in low-productivity areas. Our findings support previous studies that proposed Arctic foxes function as ecosystem engineers in low Arctic ecosystems by converting sites of low productivity into sites of high productivity through their denning activity. Plant productivity was unrelated to recent den occupancy patterns, indicating fox denning activity has long-term legacy effects on plants that last well beyond the lifetime of foxes. We add to the growing body of literature that recognizes predators can be drivers of landscape heterogeneity and influence ecosystem dynamics through patch-scale pathways, such as by concentrating nutrients into localized areas. Our study demonstrates the efficacy of using remote sensing technologies to advance our understanding of the functional roles that predators specifically, and animals generally, occupy in ecosystems.

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“…Rivers can affect wildfires via a number of mechanisms, which include acting as a fire break (Coffman et al, 2010), increasing soil moisture (Fairfax & Whittle, 2020) and producing variable fuel in successional floodplain mosaics (Pettit & Naiman, 2007b). In accordance with the shifting habitat mosaic hypothesis (Kleindl et al, 2015), all these mechanisms are controlled fundamentally by the levels of river-floodplain connectivity in restoring shifting floodplain mosaics and their associated biotic and abiotic processes.…”

Section: Defining River Restoration In the Context Of Wildfirementioning

confidence: 99%

A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire

Pugh

Colley

Dugdale

et al. 2022

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Background: Historically, wildfire regimes produced important landscape-scale disturbances in many regions globally. The "pyrodiversity begets biodiversity" hypothesis suggests that wildfires that generate temporally and spatially heterogeneous mosaics of wildfire severity and post-burn recovery enhance biodiversity at landscape scales.However, river management has often led to channel incision that disconnects rivers from their floodplains, desiccating floodplain habitats and depleting groundwater. In conjunction with predicted increases in frequency, intensity and extent of wildfires under climate change, this increases the likelihood of deep, uniform burns that reduce biodiversity. Predicted synergy of river restoration and biodiversity increase:Recent focus on floodplain re-wetting and restoration of successional floodplain habitat mosaics, developed for river management and flood prevention, could reduce wildfire intensity in restored floodplains and make the burns less uniform, increasing climate-change resilience; an important synergy. According to theory, this would also enhance biodiversity. However, this possibility is yet to be tested empirically. We suggest potential research avenues. Illustration and future directions:We illustrate the interaction between wildfire and river restoration using a restoration project in Oregon, USA. A project to reconnect the South Fork McKenzie River and its floodplain suffered a major burn ("Holiday Farm" wildfire, 2020), offering a rare opportunity to study the interaction between this type of river restoration and wildfire; specifically, the predicted increases in pyrodiversity and biodiversity. Given the importance of river and wetland ecosystems for biodiversity globally, a research priority should be to increase our understanding of potential mechanisms for a "triple win" of flood reduction, wildfire alleviation and biodiversity promotion.

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Smokey the Beaver: Beaver‐Dammed Riparian Corridors Stay Green During Wildfire Throughout the Western USA

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Relics of beavers past: time and population density drive scale‐dependent patterns of ecosystem engineering

Relics of beavers past: time and population density drive scale‐dependent patterns of ecosystem engineering

A cosmic view of ‘tundra gardens’: satellite imagery provides a landscape-scale perspective of Arctic fox ecosystem engineering

A possible role for river restoration enhancing biodiversity through interaction with wildfire

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