Beaver (Castor canadensis) as a surrogate species for conserving anuran amphibians on boreal streams in Alberta, Canada

Stevens, Cameron E.; Paszkowski, Cynthia A.; Foote, A. Lee

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.07.017

Cited by 57 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Historically beavers (Castor canadensis) occurred throughout North America (Hill 1982), and beaver ponds may have been high-quality breeding habitats for many species of amphibians in our study area (e.g., Metts et al 2001;Cunningham et al 2007;Stevens et al 2007). It seems likely that with the elimination of beavers as a mechanism for natural wetland creation, the function of artificial habitats for amphibian reproduction in our study area may have become more significant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Value of Artificial Habitats for Amphibian Reproduction in Altered Landscapes

Brand

Snodgrass

2010

Conservation Biology

139

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Installation and maintenance of stormwater ponds to detain and treat runoff from impervious surfaces is a common method of stormwater control in developed areas. That these ponds capture pollutants, however, is of concern for wildlife species that use the ponds, particularly pond-breeding amphibians. To assess the relative contribution of stormwater ponds to the persistence of amphibian populations in suburban landscapes, we compared amphibian use of stormwater ponds and other available wetlands in suburban and forested watersheds. We surveyed three suburban and three primarily forested first-order watersheds to identify all potential wetlands that might serve as breeding sites for pond-breeding amphibians. We performed call, egg-mass, and larval surveys to measure breeding effort at each wetland in spring and summer 2007 and 2008. In suburban watersheds most (89%) of the wetlands that had breeding activity were either stormwater ponds or otherwise artificial. This pattern was also evident in the forested watersheds, where amphibians were primarily found breeding in wetlands created by past human activity. Late-stage larvae were found only in anthropogenic wetlands in all study areas because the remaining natural wetlands did not hold water long enough for larvae to complete development. Our results suggest that in urban and suburban landscapes with naturally low densities of wetlands, wetlands created by current or historic land uses may be as important to amphibian conservation as natural wetlands or pools and that management strategies directed at urban and suburban landscapes should recognize and incorporate human-created wetlands.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Value of Artificial Habitats for Amphibian Reproduction in Altered Landscapes

Brand

Snodgrass

2010

Conservation Biology

139

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“…Once widespread in northern North America, this species was harvested to low numbers by the early 1900s (Jenkins and Busher 1979). Restoration of beaver to aquatic systems improves habitat for a number of species (McKinstry et al 2001;Stevens et al 2007), and is a conservation goal in many areas (McKinstry et al 2001;Pollock et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust molecular sex identification of beaver (Castor canadensis) from non-destructive samples

Goldberg

Woodruff

Toldness

et al. 2011

Conservation Genet Resour

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Beaver (Castor canadensis) are currently the focus of many wetland restoration projects as a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer. This species forms multi-season pair bonds, making sex ratio an especially important consideration for restoration projects. However, beavers lack external sexual dimorphism (with the exception of lactation) and current methods of sex identification have error rates C10%. We improved on previous methods of genetic sex identification for beaver by developing a test that uses a short nuclear fragment in addition to an established Y chromosome-specific sex-determining region (SRY) marker. This method had 100% accuracy with 28 known-sex samples and 95% PCR success with no inconsistencies for 42 hair samples from beavers of unknown sex. We used this test to inform a beaver restoration study and increase the probability of population establishment from translocated animals.

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“…Damming and consequent flooding of stream valleys by beavers increase species diversity or population density of mustelids (Sidorovich et al 1996), wetland birds, especially waterfowl (Nummi 1992;Grover and Baldassarre 1995;Nummi and Poysa 1997); amphibians (Russell et al 1999;Dalbeck et al 2007;Stevens et al 2007;Popescu and Gibbs 2009), cyprinid fish (Collen and Gibson 2000), lenitic insects (e.g., dragonflies and chironomids), bivalves, leeches, oligochaetes and some crustaceans (McDowell and Naiman 1986;Nummi 1989;Nummi 1992;Collen and Gibson 2000). However, the response of particular taxa to beaver activities can be diverse and related to species-specific preferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the response of particular taxa to beaver activities can be diverse and related to species-specific preferences. For example, beaver damming decreases frequency and species diversity of salamanders, but increases these parameters in frogs (Metts et al 2001;Stevens et al 2007). It may also contribute to the decline of lotic species-mayflies, net-spinning caddisflies, stoneflies, and salmonid fish (McDowell and Naiman 1986;Nummi 1989;Collen and Gibson 2000;Rosell et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reintroduction of beavers Castor fiber may improve habitat quality for vespertilionid bats foraging in small river valleys

et al. 2010

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Beavers strongly modify their environment by not only building dams and creating ponds, which slow the water flow, but also by selective cutting and removing of trees, which change the spatial structure of the forest. We aimed to test the hypothesis that beaver activity promotes new foraging sites for insectivorous bats. The beaver's influence can be especially significant on aerial hawkers that prefer moderate structural clutter, like the Pipistrellus species (by creating new canopy gaps), and on water-surface foragers, like Myotis daubentonii (by creating ponds with smooth water surface). The study was conducted on small streams in forest areas of northern Poland, which were colonized by the European beaver (Castor fiber). Bat activity was recorded with a Pettersson D-980 ultrasound detector on line transects. The number of bat passes was significantly higher in the stream sections modified by beavers (flooded and subjected to intensive tree cutting) than in the unmodified sections (for Pipistrellus nathusii, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus pygmaeus, Nyctalus noctula, and all species lumped together). Contrary to our expectations, the activity of the Myotis species was significantly lower on the transect with the largest beaver ponds, possibly due to the blanket of duckweed (Lemnaceae), which is known to produce clutter echoes, thereby reducing prey detection by echolocating M. daubentonii.

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Beaver (Castor canadensis) as a surrogate species for conserving anuran amphibians on boreal streams in Alberta, Canada

Cited by 57 publications

References 67 publications

Value of Artificial Habitats for Amphibian Reproduction in Altered Landscapes

Value of Artificial Habitats for Amphibian Reproduction in Altered Landscapes

Robust molecular sex identification of beaver (Castor canadensis) from non-destructive samples

Reintroduction of beavers Castor fiber may improve habitat quality for vespertilionid bats foraging in small river valleys

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