Impacts of Pollutants on Beavers and Otters with Implications for Ecosystem Ramifications

Abstract

Anthropogenic pollution has impacted ecosystems and organisms globally. Aquatic freshwater systems are of particular concern because of their importance to human health and livelihoods. Sentinel species can serve as indicators for both individual and population‐level health risks to both wildlife and humans, and therefore facilitate the mitigation and prevention of such contamination. When such species are also keystone species and/or ecological engineers in aquatic ecosystems, understanding the influence of pollutants on their physiology and behavior acquires added importance. Given that river otters (Lontra canadensis and Lutra lutra) and beavers (Castor canadensis and C. fiber) serve such roles and are susceptible to a wide‐range of anthropogenic pollution, this makes them prime candidates as indicators or sentinels of aquatic ecosystem health. We review published evidence on the toxicological impacts of pollutants in beavers and river otters and discuss the implications of exposure to their behavioral systems, conservation, and surrounding ecosystem.

Activity of beavers as an ecological factor that affects the benthos of small rivers - a case study in the Żylica River (Poland)

“…The Eurasian beaver has a greater impact on the local ecosystems that it occupies, than other herbivores (Johnston and Naiman 1987 ; Stringer and Gaywood 2016 ; Larsen et al 2017 ), and the area that is affected, exceeds the range of their distribution and existence (Czech 2007 ). They are known as potentially important ecosystem engineers (Wright and Jones 2006 ; Arndt and Domdei 2011 ; Peterrson and Schulte 2016 ). Their activity may change or create new habitats that are not only available to beavers (Rosell et al 2005 ; Baker et al 2012 ; Pliūraitė and Kesminas 2012 ), but also to other animal groups such as amphibians (Cunningham et al 2006 ; Vehkaoja and Nummi 2015 ), fishes (Schlosser and Kallemeyn 2000 ; Janiszewski et al 2014 ), small mammals (Nummi et al 2011 ; Suzuki and McComb 2004 ), and also many species of birds.…”

Multiscale Free Energy Analysis of Human Ecosystem Engineering

“…Within FEP, it can be argued that long-term survival depends upon generative models for preferences having enough time to adapt to environmental changes. For example, within FEP, following human water pollution [ 40 ] beavers could develop a new generative model with new preference distribution for sensory inputs: +10 (protective pond in clear water); +2 (protective pond in polluted water); 0 (woodland); −10 (hungry predator).…”

Content of chemical elements in the liver of cattle with fasciolosis and dicrocoeliosis

“…Аналіз показників накопичення токсичних елементів у тваринах-індикаторах дозволяє дати санітарну характеристику стану середовища відносно факторів промислового забруднення, оцінити ступінь ризику від дії нових антропогенних чинників у біосфері та, відповідно, скласти коротко-та довгострокові прогнози зміни екології (Saltyikova, 2011;Peterson & Schulte, 2016). Біомоніторин-гу важких металів в органах і тканинах риб присвячено праці Le et al (2016) та Javed & Usmani (2016).…”