As the Arctic Warms, Beavers Are Moving In - Slashdot
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As the Arctic Warms, Beavers Are Moving In
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As the Arctic Warms, Beavers Are Moving In (arstechnica.com) 58
Posted by msmash
on Monday December 05, 2022 @09:00AM from the closer-look dept."Beavers really alter ecosystems," says Thomas Jung, senior wildlife biologist for Canada's Yukon government. In fact, their ability to transform landscapes may be second only to that of humans: Before they were nearly extirpated by fur trappers, millions of beavers shaped the flow of North American waters. In temperate regions, beaver dams affect everything from the height of the water table to the kinds of shrubs and trees that grow. Until a few decades ago, the northern edge of the beaver's range was defined by boreal forest, because beavers rely on woody plants for food and material to build their dams and lodges. But rapid warming in the Arctic has made the tundra more hospitable to the large rodents: Earlier snowmelt, thawing permafrost and a longer growing season have triggered a boom in shrubby plants like alder and willow that beavers need. Aerial photography from the 1950s showed no beaver ponds at all in Arctic Alaska. But in a recent study, Ken Tape, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, scanned satellite images of nearly every stream, river and lake in the Alaskan tundra and found 11,377 beaver ponds.
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