Maker of Landscapes
Maker of Landscapes
Creating Habitat for Plants, Animals, and People
This chapter explains how beavers create habitat for plants, people, and other animals. As “ecosystem engineers,” beavers affect their ecosystem by damming up water and removing trees. The stored water and raised water table can be important for many plants and animals, especially during droughts. Furthermore, the water flow pattern is altered, reducing erosion. The beaver dam creates a “hydraulic head,” which raises the water level at the creek bank and moves water around the dam both above ground and as groundwater flow. This chapter discusses the impact of beavers on water and soil chemistry and on humans and other organisms such as plants, insects and other invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It also considers the effect of beavers on vegetation succession.
Keywords: beaver, habitat, plants, animals, ecosystem engineer, hydraulic head, water chemistry, soil chemistry, humans, vegetation succession
Cornell Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
