Along the rivers of the cold temperate and subarctic forests of Europe, there lives a kind of furry amphibian, the body is usually fat and fat, the limbs are slightly wide and short, the short neck, the small head, the head also unexpectedly grew a pair of small eyes, looking cute, very stupid. However, they are actually very alert, like owls like nocturnals, are mediocre diving experts, and are known as workaholics in the animal kingdom, for their work, they have a life-threatening, endless struggle fanaticism. Do you know what they are called?
The infrastructure maniac of the animal kingdom
This animal is called a beaver. Most of his life is not in the construction of bridges and dams, or on the way to build bridges and dams, there is a great sense of competing with Chinese for the name of "infrastructure maniac". In order to collect materials to build a river dam, they often exert their extraordinary ability to destroy trees, a pair of small yellow teeth are comparable to mechanical chainsaws, and a leafy tree bites under their good teeth, and finally cannot escape the fate of collapse, helplessly contributing to the beaver dam.
Of course, this way of using materials also allows the little ones to invent a unique way to die: to be killed by a tree that they have gnawed down. In areas where beavers live, it is not difficult to find the bodies of these little ones every year from late September to October. Speaking of this, many people have cried and laughed, and may think, since the risk of this job is so high, do we want to persuade it to change its career? However, it can be clearly said that the feasibility of letting beavers change their professions and no longer build dams is basically zero.
Why do beavers build dams?
We all know that animals have their own natural enemies, and beavers are no exception. Moreover, the beaver itself is actually relatively weak, and it lives in the wild, and foxes, bears, wolves and other animals will hunt them. In order to survive, in the process of natural evolution, they have long engraved the skill of building dams into their genes. Their nests are generally built on the banks of rivers, which is more conducive to avoiding predators, and in order to prevent the river water level from decreasing, resulting in the exposure of their homes, they will use branches, stones, mud blocks, etc. to build dams to raise the water level.
The dam built by the beaver is by no means a tofu slag project, but is very stable. When building a river dam, they will first lay the foundation with large stones, then fill the gaps with silt, aquatic weeds, etc. in the river, and then move a section of large tree trunks into the water, and finally stack them with small branches crisscrossing the top. And what they are smartest about is that they will place the branches with more branches towards the lower reaches of the river, so that even the rising water will be difficult to wash the dam down. They will also carry out regular maintenance of the dam to prevent leakage, according to the constant change of water level, the height of the dam to make corresponding adjustments, after all, their own and a family of wives and children are safe by the dam, can not be sloppy.
What are the impacts of beaver dams?
Are beaver dams just self-serving? Many schools abroad regard beavers as mascots, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology. It can be seen that beavers are loved by people, because the damming of beavers has actually made an important contribution to the natural ecology. In response, Professor Christine of the University of Massachusetts Amherst said: "Beavers are famous engineers, and they seem to be able to greatly shrink any river with structures built of logs and mud. ”
Indeed, because climate change can cause extreme storms in some areas and severe droughts in others, scientists have found that small-scale natural interventions by beavers are valuable. In dry areas, beaver ponds restore water to the soil; in wet areas, their dams and ponds can help slow flooding. These ecological services are so useful that land managers are transposing beavers in the US and UK to help restore ecosystems and make them more suitable for climate change.
Beaver Dam: Protect yourself for the benefit of others
In Europe and North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, beavers were hunted down to near extinction by humans, but today they are found in many regions. As an earth scientist specializing in water resources, Kristin believes it's important to understand how to properly help beavers and find ways to coexist with humans in developed regions, and scientists are also working on ways to use beavers to mitigate the risk of wildfires and droughts in the western United States. Beavers changed the landscape to build dams to create ponds where they could build dome-shaped huts in the water to keep predators at a distance.
When they create a dam, there are many other benefits accordingly. Flooded trees in the news die, but like bare "obstacles" to bird's nests, shifting streams create complex, slow-flowing water interwoven channels that tangle with logs and plants that provide a hiding place for fish. The messy complexity behind the beaver dams has created habitats for many different species of creatures, like fish, birds, frogs, and insects.
In contrast to beaver dams, human dams often block fish passage upstream and downstream, even though dams include fish ladders. But studies have shown that the fish make effortless upstream to the beaver dam. One reason may be that the fish can be placed in slow pools and cool pond complexes behind the highest part of the dam. In addition, the slow-moving water behind the beaver dam is very effective at trapping sediment, causing it to fall at the bottom of the pond. Studies measuring total organic carbon in active and abandoned beaver meadows have shown that before the 1800s, active and abandoned beaver ponds in North America stored large amounts of carbon in the sediment trapped behind them.
This discovery is crucial as scientists look for ways to increase carbon storage in forests and other natural ecosystems. If not threatened by bears, mountain lions or humans, beavers may stay in one location for decades, but if there is not enough food, they will continue to advance near the pond. When they abandon their original beaver dams, the ponds drain and gradually turn into meadows as the plants in the seeds of the land around them can be used as floodplains for nearby rivers, allowing the water to overflow and provide feed and spawning areas for the fish during periods of high flow.
Floodplain meadows are valuable habitats for near-nesting birds and other river-dependent species. In Virginia State Park, the value of the meadows slowed down the expansion of human settlements, and people often wanted to take advantage of every acre of grass. This usually means they want solid and dry land, enough to cultivate or a waterway that can be navigated by boat. To create these conditions, humans remove floating logs from streams and install drainage pipes to pump water from fields and roads as quickly and efficiently as possible. The rainfall of ordinary storms may produce strong river flows, which will erode the banks and beds of waterways.
And, with climate change, storms in many places become more intense, and it will amplify this devastating impact. Some developers limit this destructive process by using engineering principles based on nature (such as "floating" water to intercept it; spread out more widely to reduce the speed of water; and design sways, or sunken spots, to sink water to the ground. Obviously, it would have been better if all these things had been done with beaver wetlands.
When disaster strikes, the beaver dam is a refuge for the animals
Research in the UK has documented that beaver activity can reduce flood flows on farmland by 30 percent, helping to cool the ground around and below. The wet soils in these areas contain many organic matter, buried in decaying plants, which remain in moisture longer than soils formed only by rocks and minerals. In wetland studies, we found that after a storm, the water entering the ground after hours to days of pure mineral sand can remain in 80-90% organic matter for a month. It can also be used as a buffer against wildfires.
A recent study in the western United States found that the vegetation of the Beaver Beam River Corridor is more fire-tolerant than in areas without beavers because it is well-watered and lush, so it is not easily burned. As a result, the area around the beaver dam provides temporary shelter for wildlife, and the ecological services provided by beavers are the most valuable areas when the surrounding area burns, in which no one minds if the landscape changes. However, in the densely developed eastern United States, it is difficult to find open areas where beaver ponds can be scattered without flood ditches or roads.
Beavers also cover expensive landscape trees, placing Ed in some of the cultivated crops such as corn and soybeans. In July 2021, intense rains overtook the Beaver Dam and washed away a small 3-foot burrow in western Massachusetts. Since then, it has been replaced by a more resilient 9-foot structure. Fencing and other exclusion equipment allow beavers to maintain a safe distance from the infrastructure and keep pond heights at levels where they will not flood. It is designed to keep fish and other aquatic animals alive, rather than stopping them from crossing streams.
The presence of beavers can help withstand climate change and extreme precipitation events. If these structures are large enough to allow debris to pass through, then beavers will build dams on top of them, which could help humans intercept flooding studies. A growing body of research suggests that preparing large amounts of land for beavers is beneficial for wetland ecosystems, biodiversity, and rivers. We can fully learn from beavers' water management skills, coexist with them, coexist in our landscapes, and use their natural engineering as an object of learning, which is more conducive to human response to the damage caused by climate change.
Author: Cream997 Review: Henna