Environmental factors influencing beaver dam locations

Swinnen, Kristijn R.R.; Rutten, Anneleen; Nyssen, Jan; Leirs, Herwig

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21601

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Based on the results of the questionnaire (114 beaver territories, 458 beaver dams) and the detailed field survey (12 beaver territories, 51 beaver dams), an overview of the dam building activities of beavers in the streams of Bavaria was obtained. Our findings revealed that 90% of the beaver dams were observed in small streams with a width ranging from 2 to 11 m and 59% of the streams were in a depth range of 0.5 to 1 m. These results coincide with observations from other studies, which showed water depths of less than one meter and variable widths ranging between 0.5 and 46 m [16,18,[43][44][45]. In Bavaria, beavers show similar activity patterns as observed in other regions.…”

Section: Survey and Analysis Of Beaver Territoriessupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The simulations also showed that the flooded areas increase by up to 359% due to the occurrence of beaver dams. These additional inundation areas could cause some human-wildlife conflict as it is also assumed by Swinnen et al [18].…”

Section: Impact Of the Investigated Beaver Dam Cascades On Flood Eventsmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…It increases the comparability of the different investigated scenarios and enables conclusions of site-specific hydromorphological and topographical properties and their impacts on flood events. Different methods for the prediction of beaver habitats and dam building activities of the castor canadensis and the castor fiber have been developed for North America, Sweden, and the lowlands of Belgium and the Netherlands in recent decades [16][17][18]. Most of them include the same parameters to predict suitable beaver territories as we considered in our study (e.g., stream slope, river width, river depth, and riparian vegetative conditions).…”

Section: Development Of Hydraulic Beaver Dam Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies in Sweden, Russia, and North America have shown that shallower streams are colonized much later than deeper ones [15][16][17]. A recent study by Swinnen et al [18] analyzed the environmental factors influencing the locations of beaver dams in the lowlands of Middle Belgium and Southern Netherlands, but without considering the characteristics of dam cascades (closely spaced sequence of dams). Beaver dams may have various positive effects on river ecology, habitat and species diversity, and water quality, which have already been described and summarized in various studies (see, e.g., in [19][20][21][22][23][24]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydraulic Modeling of Beaver Dams and Evaluation of Their Impacts on Flood Events

Neumayer

Teschemacher

Schloemer

et al. 2020

Water

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There is a general agreement on the impact of beaver dams regarding the increasing diversity of habitats and the improvement of the water quality, whereas the retention effect during flood events is still being discussed. In this study, we modeled 12 beaver dam cascade scenarios in two catchments for eight flood events with a two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic model. The implementation of the potential cascades in the model is based on the developed three-stage model for predicting location-dependent dam cascades in Bavaria. A Bavaria-wide questionnaire regarding dam occurrences and characteristics in combination with a detailed survey of 51 dams was used to set up a prediction scheme. It was observed that beaver dams are most likely built in rivers with riparian forest, with widths from 2 to 11 m and depths smaller than 1 m. The hydraulic model results showed larger inundation areas (>+300%) for the beaver dam scenarios. There is a noticeable peak attenuation and translation for elevated peak discharges (five times the annual mean discharge: up to ≤13.1% and 2.75 h), but no remarkable effect could be observed for flood events with return periods of more than 2 years. We conclude from the results that beaver dam cascades can have an impact on runoff characteristics, but do not lead to relevant peak reductions during flood events and therefore cannot be counted as flood mitigation measure.

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Section: Survey and Analysis Of Beaver Territoriessupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Impact Of the Investigated Beaver Dam Cascades On Flood Eventsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Development Of Hydraulic Beaver Dam Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydraulic Modeling of Beaver Dams and Evaluation of Their Impacts on Flood Events

Neumayer

Teschemacher

Schloemer

et al. 2020

Water

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“…Beavers have a preference for habitats with deep, slow-flowing water, to feel safe from predators (Collen & Gibson, 2000;Hartman & Tornlov, 2006;Swinnen, Rutten, Nyssen, & Leirs, 2019). Therefore, their dam-building activity is typically restricted to lower-order streams where stream power is limited (Graham et al, 2020;Gurnell, 1998;Macfarlane et al, 2015;Rosell et al, 2005) and water depths may not be sufficient (normally <0.7 m depth) for beaver movement and security.…”

Section: Dam Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beaver: Nature's ecosystem engineers

et al. 2020

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Beavers have the ability to modify ecosystems profoundly to meet their ecological needs, with significant associated hydrological, geomorphological, ecological, and societal impacts. To bring together understanding of the role that beavers may play in the management of water resources, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, this article reviews the state-of-the-art scientific understanding of the beaver as the quintessential ecosystem engineer. This review has a European focus but examines key research considering both Castor fiber-the Eurasian beaver and Castor canadensis-its North American counterpart. In recent decades species reintroductions across Europe, concurrent with natural expansion of refugia populations has led to the return of C. fiber to much of its European range with recent reviews estimating that the C. fiber population in Europe numbers over 1.5 million individuals. As such, there is an increasing need for understanding of the impacts of beaver in intensively populated and managed, contemporary European landscapes. This review summarizes how beaver impact: (a) ecosystem structure and geomorphology, (b) hydrology and water resources, (c) water quality, (d) freshwater ecology, and (e) humans and society. It concludes by examining future considerations that may need to be resolved as beavers further expand in the northern hemisphere with an emphasis upon the ecosystem services that they can provide and the associated management that will be necessary to maximize the benefits and minimize conflicts.

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Exploring the dynamics of flow attenuation at a beaver dam sequence

Graham

Puttock

Elliott³

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

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Beavers influence hydrology by constructing woody dams. Using a Before After Control Impact experimental design, we quantified the effects of a beaver dam sequence on the flow regime of a stream in SW England and consider the mechanisms that underpin flow attenuation in beaver wetlands. Rainfall-driven hydrological events were extracted between 2009 and 2020, for the impacted (n = 612) and control (n = 634) catchments, capturing events 7 years before and 3 years after beaver occupancy, at the impacted site. General additive models were used to describe average hydrograph geometry across all events. After beaver occupancy, Lag times increased by 55.9% in the impacted site and declined by 17.5% in the control catchment. Flow duration curve analysis showed a larger reduction in frequency of high flows, following beaver dam construction, with declines of Q5 exceedance levels of 33% for the impacted catchment and 15% for the control catchment. Using event total rainfall to predict peak flow, five generalized linear models were fitted to test the hypothesis that beaver dams attenuate flow, to a greater degree, with larger storm magnitude.The best performing model showed, with high confidence, that beaver dams attenuated peak flows, with increasing magnitude, up to between 0.5 and 2.5 m 3 s À1 for the 94th percentile of event total rainfall; but attenuation beyond the 97th percentile cannot be confidently detected. Increasing flow attenuation, with event magnitude, is attributed to transient floodplain storage in low gradient/profile floodplain valleys that results from an increase in active area of the floodplain. These findings support the assertion that beaver dams attenuate flows. However, with long-term datasets of extreme hydrological events lacking, it is challenging to predict the effect of beaver dams during extreme events with high precision. Beaver dams will have spatially variable impacts on hydrological processes, requiring further investigation to quantify responses to dams across differing landscapes and scales.

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Environmental factors influencing beaver dam locations

Cited by 9 publications

References 31 publications

Hydraulic Modeling of Beaver Dams and Evaluation of Their Impacts on Flood Events

Hydraulic Modeling of Beaver Dams and Evaluation of Their Impacts on Flood Events

Beaver: Nature's ecosystem engineers

Exploring the dynamics of flow attenuation at a beaver dam sequence

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