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The humble beaver could save U.S. waterways.
“As we’re getting drier and warmer in the mountain watersheds in the American West, that should lead to water quality degradation,” Stanford University professor Scott Fendorf, a senior author of the beaver study, told SWNS. “Yet unbeknownst to us prior to this study, the outsized influence of beaver activity on water quality is a positive counter to climate change.”
The impact these incredible creatures have had on U.S. waterways has some dubbing beavers the “working class heroes of their ecosystems,” researchers shared.
The study, published inNature Communications, is based on mountain rivers in Colorado and found that beavers' dams raise water levels upstream. Water is then diverted into surrounding soils and secondary waterways — known collectively as riparian zones.
The zones act as filters, straining out excess nutrients and contaminants before water re-enters the main channel downstream. The benefits of the beavers' buildings are set to grow in the years ahead when hotter conditions will likely lessen water quality.
Initially, the study’s lead author, Dr. Christian Dewey of Oregon State — whose mascot, incidentally, is a beaver — had set out to track seasonal changes in hydrology.
The year-long datasets were then compared to the area’s water quality during the nearly three-month period, starting in late July 2018, when the beaver dam blocked the river.
During periods of drought, as less water flows through rivers and streams, the concentrations of contaminants and excess nutrients, such as nitrogen, rise. Major downpours and seasonal snowmelt are needed to flush out contaminants and restore water quality.
The study is a reminder that as the future impacts of climate change are assessed, feedback from changes in ecosystems must also be included.
“We would expect climate change to induce hydrological extremes and degradation of water quality during drought periods,” Fendorf added. “In this study, we’re seeing that would have indeed been true if it weren’t for this other ecological change taking place, which is the beavers, their proliferating dams, and their growing populations.”
source: people.com
