Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains?
Beaver have expanded in their native habitats throughout the northern hemisphere in recent decades following reductions in trapping and reintroduction efforts. Beaver have the potential to strongly influence salmon populations in the side channels of large alluvial rivers by building dams that creat...
Published in: | PeerJ |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
PeerJ
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2403 https://peerj.com/articles/2403.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/2403.xml https://peerj.com/articles/2403.html |
id |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.2403 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crpeerj:10.7717/peerj.2403 2024-06-02T08:09:44+00:00 Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? Malison, Rachel L. Kuzishchin, Kirill V. Stanford, Jack A. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2403 https://peerj.com/articles/2403.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/2403.xml https://peerj.com/articles/2403.html en eng PeerJ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PeerJ volume 4, page e2403 ISSN 2167-8359 journal-article 2016 crpeerj https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2403 2024-05-07T14:14:35Z Beaver have expanded in their native habitats throughout the northern hemisphere in recent decades following reductions in trapping and reintroduction efforts. Beaver have the potential to strongly influence salmon populations in the side channels of large alluvial rivers by building dams that create pond complexes. Pond habitat may improve salmon productivity or the presence of dams may reduce productivity if dams limit habitat connectivity and inhibit fish passage. Our intent in this paper is to contrast the habitat use and production of juvenile salmon on expansive floodplains of two geomorphically similar salmon rivers: the Kol River in Kamchatka, Russia (no beavers) and the Kwethluk River in Alaska (abundant beavers), and thereby provide a case study on how beavers may influence salmonids in large floodplain rivers. We examined important rearing habitats in each floodplain, including springbrooks, beaver ponds, beaver-influenced springbrooks, and shallow shorelines of the river channel. Juvenile coho salmon dominated fish assemblages in all habitats in both rivers but other species were present. Salmon density was similar in all habitat types in the Kol, but in the Kwethluk coho and Chinook densities were 3–12× lower in mid- and late-successional beaver ponds than in springbrook and main channel habitats. In the Kol, coho condition (length: weight ratios) was similar among habitats, but Chinook condition was highest in orthofluvial springbrooks. In the Kwethluk, Chinook condition was similar among habitats, but coho condition was lowest in main channel versus other habitats (0.89 vs. 0.99–1.10). Densities of juvenile salmon were extremely low in beaver ponds located behind numerous dams in the orthofluvial zone of the Kwethluk River floodplain, whereas juvenile salmon were abundant in habitats throughout the entire floodplain in the Kol River. If beavers were not present on the Kwethluk, floodplain habitats would be fully interconnected and theoretically could produce 2× the biomass (between June–August, ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Kamchatka Alaska PeerJ Publishing Beaver Ponds ENVELOPE(-57.841,-57.841,49.642,49.642) Kol’ ENVELOPE(155.946,155.946,53.834,53.834) PeerJ 4 e2403 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PeerJ Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crpeerj |
language |
English |
description |
Beaver have expanded in their native habitats throughout the northern hemisphere in recent decades following reductions in trapping and reintroduction efforts. Beaver have the potential to strongly influence salmon populations in the side channels of large alluvial rivers by building dams that create pond complexes. Pond habitat may improve salmon productivity or the presence of dams may reduce productivity if dams limit habitat connectivity and inhibit fish passage. Our intent in this paper is to contrast the habitat use and production of juvenile salmon on expansive floodplains of two geomorphically similar salmon rivers: the Kol River in Kamchatka, Russia (no beavers) and the Kwethluk River in Alaska (abundant beavers), and thereby provide a case study on how beavers may influence salmonids in large floodplain rivers. We examined important rearing habitats in each floodplain, including springbrooks, beaver ponds, beaver-influenced springbrooks, and shallow shorelines of the river channel. Juvenile coho salmon dominated fish assemblages in all habitats in both rivers but other species were present. Salmon density was similar in all habitat types in the Kol, but in the Kwethluk coho and Chinook densities were 3–12× lower in mid- and late-successional beaver ponds than in springbrook and main channel habitats. In the Kol, coho condition (length: weight ratios) was similar among habitats, but Chinook condition was highest in orthofluvial springbrooks. In the Kwethluk, Chinook condition was similar among habitats, but coho condition was lowest in main channel versus other habitats (0.89 vs. 0.99–1.10). Densities of juvenile salmon were extremely low in beaver ponds located behind numerous dams in the orthofluvial zone of the Kwethluk River floodplain, whereas juvenile salmon were abundant in habitats throughout the entire floodplain in the Kol River. If beavers were not present on the Kwethluk, floodplain habitats would be fully interconnected and theoretically could produce 2× the biomass (between June–August, ... |
author2 |
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Malison, Rachel L. Kuzishchin, Kirill V. Stanford, Jack A. |
spellingShingle |
Malison, Rachel L. Kuzishchin, Kirill V. Stanford, Jack A. Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
author_facet |
Malison, Rachel L. Kuzishchin, Kirill V. Stanford, Jack A. |
author_sort |
Malison, Rachel L. |
title |
Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
title_short |
Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
title_full |
Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
title_fullStr |
Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
title_sort |
do beaver dams reduce habitat connectivity and salmon productivity in expansive river floodplains? |
publisher |
PeerJ |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2403 https://peerj.com/articles/2403.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/2403.xml https://peerj.com/articles/2403.html |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-57.841,-57.841,49.642,49.642) ENVELOPE(155.946,155.946,53.834,53.834) |
geographic |
Beaver Ponds Kol’ |
geographic_facet |
Beaver Ponds Kol’ |
genre |
Kamchatka Alaska |
genre_facet |
Kamchatka Alaska |
op_source |
PeerJ volume 4, page e2403 ISSN 2167-8359 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2403 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
container_volume |
4 |
container_start_page |
e2403 |
_version_ |
1800755500978012160 |