In recent decades, beavers have reportedly extended their range from the boreal forest into the arctic tundra, altering tundra streams and surrounding permafrost at local to regional scales. In lower latitudes, beaver damming can convert streams, backwaters, and lake outlets into connected ponds, which in turn can change the course of channels, temperature of streams, sediment loads, energy exchange, aquatic habitat diversity and nutrient cycling, and riparian vegetation. In the Arctic, effects of beavers may include enhanced thawing of permafrost, increased stream temperatures, and changes in seasonal ice in streams, as well as complex ecosystem responses. This study will 1) document movement of beavers from the forest into tundra regions, 2) understand how stream engineering wrought by beavers will change the arctic tundra landscape and streams, and 3) predict how beavers will expand into tundra regions and alter stream and adjacent ecosystems. Results will be of interest to local communities and resource managers, and the team of investigators will convene a scientist and stakeholder workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska to synthesize observations, compare results from studies in temperate ecosystems, and clarify impacts of beaver expansion unique to the tundra biome.
In March and April 2022 we used a ground penetrating radar (GPR) to image the subsurface surrounding beaver ponds in a tundra region around Nome, Alaska. We used a Mala GX GPR (Mala Ground Explorer GPR) with a 160 megahertz (mhz) antenna and an integrated DGPS (differential global positioning system).
GPS (global positioning system) location data is stored in the .cor file.
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Ground Penetrating Radar data surrounding beaver ponds in Alaska tundra, 2021
In recent decades, beavers have reportedly extended their range from the boreal forest into the arctic tundra, altering tundra streams and surrounding permafrost at local to regional scales. In lower latitudes, beaver damming can convert streams, backwaters, and lake outlets into connected ponds, which in turn can change the course of channels, temperature of streams, sediment loads, energy exchange, aquatic habitat diversity and nutrient cycling, and riparian vegetation. In the Arctic, effects of beavers may include enhanced thawing of permafrost, increased stream temperatures, and changes in seasonal ice in streams, as well as complex ecosystem responses. This study will 1) document movement of beavers from the forest into tundra regions, 2) understand how stream engineering wrought by beavers will change the arctic tundra landscape and streams, and 3) predict how beavers will expand into tundra regions and alter stream and adjacent ecosystems. Results will be of interest to local communities and resource managers, and the team of investigators will convene a scientist and stakeholder workshop in Fairbanks, Alaska to synthesize observations, compare results from studies in temperate ecosystems, and clarify impacts of beaver expansion unique to the tundra biome.
In August 2021 we used a ground penetrating radar (GPR) to image the subsurface surrounding beaver ponds in a tundra region around Nome, Alaska. The general objective was to determine if heat from new beaver ponds are impacting permafrost. We used a Mala GX GPR (Mala Ground Explorer GPR) with a 450mhz antenna and an integrated DGPS (differential global positioning system).
GPS (global positioning system) location data is stored in the .cor file.
more »
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- Award ID(s):
- 1850578
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10473926
- Publisher / Repository:
- NSF Arctic Data Center
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- ["GPR","permafrost","beavers","Arctic","Alaska","tundra"]
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Beavers build dams that change the way water moves between streams, lakes, and the land. In Alaska, beavers are moving north from the forests into the Arctic tundra. When beavers build dams in the Arctic, they cause frozen soil, called permafrost, to thaw. Scientists are studying how beavers and the thawing of permafrost are impacting streams and rivers in Alaska’s national parks. For example, permafrost thaw from beavers can add harmful substances like mercury to streams. Mercury can be taken up by stream food webs, including fish, which then become unhealthy to eat. Permafrost thaw can also move carbon (from dead plants) to beaver ponds. When this carbon decomposes, it can be released from beaver ponds into the air as greenhouse gases, which cause Earth’s climate to warm. Scientists are trying to keep up with these busy beavers to better understand how they are changing Arctic landscapes and Earth’s climate.
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Abstract In recent decades the habitat of North American beaver (
Castor canadensis ) has expanded from boreal forests into Arctic tundra ecosystems. Beaver ponds in Arctic watersheds are known to alter stream biogeochemistry, which is likely coupled with changes in the activity and composition of microbial communities inhabiting beaver pond sediments. We investigated bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities in beaver pond sediments along tundra streams in northwestern Alaska (AK), USA and compared them to those of tundra lakes and streams in north‐central Alaska that are unimpacted by beavers.β ‐glucosidase activity assays indicated higher cellulose degradation potential in beaver ponds than in unimpacted streams and lakes within a watershed absent of beavers. Beta diversity analyses showed that dominant lineages of bacteria and archaea in beaver ponds differed from those in tundra lakes and streams, but dominant fungal lineages did not differ between these sample types. Beaver pond sediments displayed lower relative abundances of Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota archaea and of bacteria from typically anaerobic taxonomic groups, suggesting differences in rates of fermentative organic matter (OM) breakdown, syntrophy, and methane generation. Beaver ponds also displayed low relative abundances of Chytridiomycota (putative non‐symbiotic) fungi and high relative abundances of ectomycorrhizal (plant symbionts) Basidiomycota fungi, suggesting differences in the occurrence of plant and fungi mutualistic interactions. Beaver ponds also featured microbes with taxonomic identities typically associated with the cycling of nitrogen and sulfur compounds in higher relative abundances than tundra lakes and streams. These findings help clarify the microbiological implications of beavers expanding into high latitude regions. -
Emergence of beavers as ecosystem engineers in the New Arctic project focuses on establishing field sites at tundra beaver ponds to study the implications of beaver engineering on hydrology and permafrost. Drones are being used to collect baseline data and track beaver dam building and pond evolution over time. This dataset consists of a multispectral orthomosaic derived from drone surveys on 15 August 2022 at the South Fork Serpentine River site on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. 3,654 digital images from five spectral bands were acquired from a DJI Phantom 4 Real-Time Kinematic (DJI P4RTK) quadcopter with a DJI D-RTK 2 Mobile Base Station. The mapped area was around 86 hectares (ha). The drone system was flown at 120 meters (m) above ground level (agl) and images were captured using the hover and capture at point mode. The orientation of the camera was set to 90 degrees (i.e. looking straight down). The along-track overlap and across-track overlap of the mission were set at 80% and 70%, respectively. All images were processed in the software Pix4D Mapper (v. 4.7.5) using the standard 3D Maps workflow and the accurate geolocation and orientation calibration method to produce the multispectral orthophoto mosaic at a spatial resolution of 10 centimeters (cm). Images of a MicaSense calibrated reflectance panel were used for radiometric processing and calibration of each spectral band in the Index Calculator in Pix4D. A Leica Viva differential global positioning system (GPS) provided ground control for the mission and the data were post-processed to WGS84 UTM Zone 3 North.more » « less
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