The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals
Beavers are ecosystem engineers which are capable to facilitate many groups of organisms. However, their facilitation of mammals has been little studied. We applied two methods, camera trapping and snow track survey to investigate the facilitation of a mammalian community by the ecosystem engineerin...
Published in: | Global Ecology and Conservation |
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ftunivhelsihelda:oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/306498 2024-01-07T09:38:06+01:00 The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals Nummi, Petri Liao, Wenfei Huet, Ophélie Scarpulla, Erminia Sundell, Janne Wetland Ecology Group Department of Forest Sciences Forest Ecology and Management Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme Lammi Biological Station 2019-10-29T12:05:01Z 10 application/pdf image/jpeg http://hdl.handle.net/10138/306498 eng eng Elsevier Scientific Publ. Co 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00701 Nummi , P , Liao , W , Huet , O , Scarpulla , E & Sundell , J 2019 , ' The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals ' , Global Ecology and Conservation , vol. 20 , e00701 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00701 ORCID: /0000-0001-6348-6296/work/75461747 ORCID: /0000-0002-1583-0408/work/75563461 c184d93c-7825-45b8-a8cb-09e8672532a9 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/306498 000498226800013 cc_by_nc_nd cc_by_nc_sa openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Castor Ecosystem engineer Eurasian otter Moose Restoration Wetlands ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS CASTOR-CANADENSIS EURASIAN BEAVER POSITIVE INTERACTIONS BUILDING ACTIVITY LONG-TERM HABITAT PATCH COMMUNITIES POPULATION Article publishedVersion 2019 ftunivhelsihelda 2023-12-14T00:06:10Z Beavers are ecosystem engineers which are capable to facilitate many groups of organisms. However, their facilitation of mammals has been little studied. We applied two methods, camera trapping and snow track survey to investigate the facilitation of a mammalian community by the ecosystem engineering of the American beaver (Castor canadensis) in a boreal setting. We found that both mammalian species richness (83% increase) and occurrence (12% increase) were significantly higher in beaver patches than in the controls. Of individual species, the moose (Alces alces) used beaver patches more during both the ice-free season and winter. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), the pine marten (Martes martes) and the least weasel (Mustela nivalis) made more use of beaver sites during the winter. Our study highlights the role of ecosystem engineers in promoting species richness and abundance, especially in areas of relatively low productivity. Wetlands and their species have been in drastic decline during the past century, and promoting facilitative ecosystem engineering by beaver is feasible in habitat conservation or restoration. Beaver engineering may be especially valuable in landscapes artificially deficient in wetlands. (c) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Alces alces Lutra lutra HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository Global Ecology and Conservation 20 e00701 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
HELDA – University of Helsinki Open Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivhelsihelda |
language |
English |
topic |
1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Castor Ecosystem engineer Eurasian otter Moose Restoration Wetlands ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS CASTOR-CANADENSIS EURASIAN BEAVER POSITIVE INTERACTIONS BUILDING ACTIVITY LONG-TERM HABITAT PATCH COMMUNITIES POPULATION |
spellingShingle |
1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Castor Ecosystem engineer Eurasian otter Moose Restoration Wetlands ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS CASTOR-CANADENSIS EURASIAN BEAVER POSITIVE INTERACTIONS BUILDING ACTIVITY LONG-TERM HABITAT PATCH COMMUNITIES POPULATION Nummi, Petri Liao, Wenfei Huet, Ophélie Scarpulla, Erminia Sundell, Janne The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
topic_facet |
1181 Ecology evolutionary biology Castor Ecosystem engineer Eurasian otter Moose Restoration Wetlands ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS CASTOR-CANADENSIS EURASIAN BEAVER POSITIVE INTERACTIONS BUILDING ACTIVITY LONG-TERM HABITAT PATCH COMMUNITIES POPULATION |
description |
Beavers are ecosystem engineers which are capable to facilitate many groups of organisms. However, their facilitation of mammals has been little studied. We applied two methods, camera trapping and snow track survey to investigate the facilitation of a mammalian community by the ecosystem engineering of the American beaver (Castor canadensis) in a boreal setting. We found that both mammalian species richness (83% increase) and occurrence (12% increase) were significantly higher in beaver patches than in the controls. Of individual species, the moose (Alces alces) used beaver patches more during both the ice-free season and winter. The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), the pine marten (Martes martes) and the least weasel (Mustela nivalis) made more use of beaver sites during the winter. Our study highlights the role of ecosystem engineers in promoting species richness and abundance, especially in areas of relatively low productivity. Wetlands and their species have been in drastic decline during the past century, and promoting facilitative ecosystem engineering by beaver is feasible in habitat conservation or restoration. Beaver engineering may be especially valuable in landscapes artificially deficient in wetlands. (c) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer reviewed |
author2 |
Wetland Ecology Group Department of Forest Sciences Forest Ecology and Management Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme Lammi Biological Station |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nummi, Petri Liao, Wenfei Huet, Ophélie Scarpulla, Erminia Sundell, Janne |
author_facet |
Nummi, Petri Liao, Wenfei Huet, Ophélie Scarpulla, Erminia Sundell, Janne |
author_sort |
Nummi, Petri |
title |
The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
title_short |
The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
title_full |
The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
title_fullStr |
The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
title_full_unstemmed |
The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
title_sort |
beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals |
publisher |
Elsevier Scientific Publ. Co |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10138/306498 |
genre |
Alces alces Lutra lutra |
genre_facet |
Alces alces Lutra lutra |
op_relation |
10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00701 Nummi , P , Liao , W , Huet , O , Scarpulla , E & Sundell , J 2019 , ' The beaver facilitates species richness and abundance of terrestrial and semi-aquatic mammals ' , Global Ecology and Conservation , vol. 20 , e00701 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00701 ORCID: /0000-0001-6348-6296/work/75461747 ORCID: /0000-0002-1583-0408/work/75563461 c184d93c-7825-45b8-a8cb-09e8672532a9 http://hdl.handle.net/10138/306498 000498226800013 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc_nd cc_by_nc_sa openAccess info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
container_title |
Global Ecology and Conservation |
container_volume |
20 |
container_start_page |
e00701 |
_version_ |
1787429704481898496 |