Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXV, Issue 1
Written by Aurelia NICA, Mihai-Stefan PETREA, Ira-Adeline SIMIONOV, Alina ANTACHE, Victor CRISTEA
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus Castor native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The European beaver (Castor fiber) has an undoubtedly positive impact on the environment: it is a key species, which means that it plays a critical role in the biodiversity of ecosystems and that many species, some endangered or threatened, rely on beavers and the landscapes they build. In this way, there are many benefits that humans and other animal species can get from beavers. Also, dam construction has the potential to alter the hydrology, geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystems of river corridors and the feedbacks between them, thus the beaver is also recognized as an 'ecosystem engineer’. However, beavers can also generate conflict situations because not all watercourses can withstand the intense construction of dams. Thus, in many contexts, the engineering activities of the beaver may come into direct conflict with other priorities: agriculture, urban land use, forestry, irrigation. Beavers occasionally damage selected trees, but the worst damage is caused by their burrows, which raise water levels in streams, ponds or lakes, flooding the ground and frequently killing large areas of valuable trees in the forest. There are proven costs to agriculture that result from the impact of beavers, and these will have to be fully taken into account in future decisions to manage the beaver population. The ecological impact of the Eurasian beaver on habitat structure has been little investigated in Europe and includes in particular the changes that take place during dam construction activities. The purpose of this study was to summarize the publications that analyse the ecological impact of beaver (Castor fiber).
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