Pheromonal activity of single castoreum constituents in beaver,Castor canadensis

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M�ller-Schwarze ◽  
Peter W. Houlihan
Keyword(s):  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Pheromonal Activity

The Methow Beaver Project: the Challenges of an Ecosystem Services Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Philip Brick ◽  
Kent Woodruff
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Natural Resource Policy ◽  
Watershed Scale ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Climate Conditions

This case explores the Methow Beaver Project (MBP), an ambitious experiment to restore beaver (Castor canadensis) to a high mountain watershed in Washington State, USA. The Pacific Northwest is already experiencing weather regimes consistent with longer term climate projections, which predict longer and drier summers and stronger and wetter winter storms. Ironically, this combination makes imperative more water storage in one of the most heavily dammed regions in the nation. Although the positive role that beaver can play in watershed enhancement has been well known for decades, no project has previously attempted to re-introduce beaver on a watershed scale with a rigorous monitoring protocol designed to document improved water storage and temperature conditions needed for human uses and aquatic species. While the MBP has demonstrated that beaver can be re-introduced on a watershed scale, it has been much more difficult to scientifically demonstrate positive changes in water retention and stream temperature, given hydrologic complexity, unprecedented fire and floods, and the fact that beaver are highly mobile. This case study can help environmental studies students and natural resource policy professionals think about the broader challenges of diffuse, ecosystem services approaches to climate adaptation. Beaver-produced watershed improvements will remain difficult to quantify and verify, and thus will likely remain less attractive to water planners than conventional storage dams. But as climate conditions put additional pressure on such infrastructure, it is worth considering how beaver might be employed to augment watershed storage capacity, even if this capacity is likely to remain at least in part inscrutable.

scholarly journals Heterozygous Trees Rebound the Fastest after Felling by Beavers to Positively Affect Arthropod Community Diversity

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 694
Author(s):  
Faith M. Walker ◽  
Rachel Durben ◽  
Stephen M. Shuster ◽  
Richard L. Lindroth ◽  
Thomas G. Whitham
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Population Substructure ◽  
Individual Plant ◽  
Arthropod Community

Although genetic diversity within stands of trees is known to have community-level consequences, whether such effects are present at an even finer genetic scale is unknown. We examined the hypothesis that genetic variability (heterozygosity) within an individual plant would affect its dependent community, which adds a new dimension to the importance of genetic diversity. Our study contrasted foliar arthropod community diversity and microsatellite marker-derived measures of genetic diversity of cottonwood (Populus fremontii) trees that had been felled by beavers (Castor canadensis) and were resprouting, relative to adjacent standing, unfelled trees. Three patterns emerged: 1. Productivity (specific leaf area), phytochemical defenses (salicortin), and arthropod community richness, abundance, and diversity were positively correlated with the heterozygosity of individual felled trees, but not with that of unfelled trees; 2. These relationships were not explained by population substructure, genetic relatedness of the trees, or hybridization; 3. The underlying mechanism appears to be that beaver herbivory stimulates increased productivity (i.e., 2× increase from the most homozygous to the most heterozygous tree) that is the greatest in more heterozygous trees. Salicortin defenses in twigs were also expressed at higher concentrations in more heterozygous trees (i.e., 3× increase from the most homozygous to the most heterozygous tree), which suggests that this compound may dissuade further herbivory by beavers, as has been found for other mammalian herbivores. We suggest that high stress to trees as a consequence of felling reveals a heterozygosity–productivity linkage, which in turn is attractive to arthropods. Although experiments are required to demonstrate causality, these results link the genetic diversity of individual trees to community diversity, supporting the hypothesis that interactions among foundation species (beavers and trees) have community-level effects, and underscores the importance of genetic diversity for biodiversity, conservation, and restoration.

scholarly journals Beavers, Bugs and Chemistry: A Mammalian Herbivore Changes Chemistry Composition and Arthropod Communities in Foundation Tree Species

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 877
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Durben ◽  
Faith M. Walker ◽  
Liza Holeski ◽  
Arthur R. Keith ◽  
Zsuzsi Kovacs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Food Preferences ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Juvenile Growth ◽  
Arthropod Community ◽  
Riparian Ecosystems ◽  
Arthropod Communities ◽  
The Impact

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis Kuhl) and cottonwoods (Populus spp.) are foundation species, the interactions of which define a much larger community and affect a threatened riparian habitat type. Few studies have tested the effect of these interactions on plant chemistry and a diverse arthropod community. We experimentally examined the impact of beaver foraging on riparian communities by first investigating beaver food preferences for one cottonwood species, Fremont cottonwood (P. fremontii S. Watson), compared to other locally available woody species. We next examined the impact of beaver foraging on twig chemistry and arthropod communities in paired samples of felled and unfelled cottonwood species in northern Arizona (P. fremontii) and southwestern Colorado (narrowleaf cottonwood, P. angustifolia James, and Eastern cottonwood, P. deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall). Four major patterns emerged: (1) In a cafeteria experiment, beavers chose P. fremontii six times more often than other woody native and exotic species. (2) With two cottonwood species, we found that the nitrogen and salicortin concentrations were up to 45% greater and lignin concentration 14% lower in the juvenile resprout growth of felled trees than the juvenile growth on unfelled trees (six of seven analyses were significant for P. fremontii and four of six were significant for P. angustifolia). (3) With two cottonwood species, arthropod community composition on juvenile branches differed significantly between felled and unfelled trees, with up to 38% greater species richness, 114% greater relative abundance and 1282% greater species diversity on felled trees (six of seven analyses with P. fremontii and four of six analyses with P. angustifolia were significant). The above findings indicate that the highest arthropod diversity is achieved in the heterogenous stands of mixed felled and unfelled trees than in stands of cottonwoods, where beavers are not present. These results also indicate that beaver herbivory changes the chemical composition in 10 out of 13 chemical traits in the juvenile growth of two of the three cottonwood species to potentially allow better defense against future beaver herbivory. (4) With P. deltoides, only one of five analyses in chemistry was significant, and none of the four arthropod community analyses were significant, suggesting that this species and its arthropod community responds differently to beaver. Potential reasons for these differences are unknown. Overall, our findings suggest that in addition to their impact on riparian vegetation, other mammals, birds, and aquatic organisms, beavers also may define the arthropod communities of two of three foundation tree species in these riparian ecosystems.

An extensive study of the foraging ecology of beavers (Castor canadensis) in relation to habitat quality

2004 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 922-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Gallant ◽  
C H Bérubé ◽  
E Tremblay ◽  
L Vasseur
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Quality ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Extensive Study ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Partial View ◽  
Selection Of

The objective of this study was to examine the foraging behaviour of the beaver (Castor canadensis Kuhl, 1820) and to explain its selection of terrestrial woody plant species according to central place foraging theory. Limitations in variety of food items in most studies with regard to size and (or) distance from the central place and information on availability of forage choices give a partial view of the subject. In this study, the theory is tested in a natural environment with high variability in food items with regard to these factors. Foraging choices by beavers were inspected by measuring variables on cut and uncut trees of every species encountered within 1 m of trail systems made by 25 beaver colonies in Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, Canada, thereby quantifying the availability of the different food items. The effect of habitat quality (food availability) on the foraging behaviour of beavers was also tested. The results of this study suggest that with increasing distance from the pond, beavers in high-quality habitats selected fewer, but larger, trees and are more species selective. This selectivity was diminished in habitats of lower quality. The results of this study are consistent with the predictions of the central foraging theory.

American Beavers (Castor canadensis) Use a Hollow Baldcypress Snag as a Lodge

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan B. Adams ◽  
Elaine M. Gelbard
Keyword(s):  
Castor Canadensis

scholarly journals Colonization of the Beaufort Coastal Plain by Beaver (Castor canadensis): A Response to Shrubification of the Tundra?

2017 ◽  
Vol 130 (4) ◽  
pp. 332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S Jung ◽  
Jay Frandsen ◽  
Danny C Gordon ◽  
David H Mossop
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Beaver Dam ◽  
Winter Food ◽  
Western Arctic ◽  
Food Cache ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
American Beaver

A consequence of rapid global warming has been the shrubification (increase in shrub abundance, cover, and biomass) of arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems. Shrubification is likely a key driver of predicted and observed changes in the biodiversity of the Arctic. The American Beaver (Castor canadensis) has a vast distributional range, covering most of north America below the tree line; however, it has not been recorded in tundra habitat of the Beaufort Coastal Plain of Yukon and Alaska. in 2015, we observed a beaver dam, lodge, and winter food cache on the Babbage River in Ivvavik National Park, Yukon, Canada. Local Inuvialuit hunters first observed beavers on two rivers immediately east of the Babbage River in 2008 and 2009. Together, these are the first observations of beavers on the Beaufort Coastal Plain and indicate initial attempts at colonization. Colonization of the Beaufort Coastal Plain by beavers may have been facilitated by shrubification of river valleys on the tundra of northern Yukon and adjacent Alaska, which is a consequence of rapid climate warming in the western Arctic.

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