Patterns of beaver colonization and wetland change in Acadia National Park Export

@article{citeulike:5240629, abstract = {The return of Castor canadensis (beaver) to areas of their former range has restored a natural disturbance regime to wetland landscapes in North America. We used aerial photographs to study wetland creation and modification by beaver in Acadia National Park, ME, during a period of beaver population expansion (1944-1997). We quantified the change in the number of available ponded wetlands in the landscape during the study period and documented an 89\% increase in ponded wetlands between 1944 and 1997. Spatial and temporal patterns of beaver colonization and changes in wetland vegetation and hydrology were recorded at six time periods (1944, 1953, 1970, 1979, 1985, and 1997) for 33 beaver-created wetlands for which we had current amphibian assemblage data. Beaver colonization generally converted forested wetlands and riparian areas to open water and emergent wetlands, resulting in significant increases in the percentage of open water and emergent wetland habitat and a decrease in the percentage of forested wetland area at the study sites. Temporal colonization of beaver wetlands initially favored large sites occurring lower in the watersheds; sites that were impounded later were generally smaller, higher in the watershed, and more likely to be abandoned by the end of our study. Our results suggest that beaver have not only increased the number of available breeding sites in the landscape for pond-breeding amphibians, but also the resulting mosaic of active and abandoned beaver wetlands is likely to provide suitable breeding habitat for a diversity of species.}, address = {Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, United States}, author = {Cunningham, J. M. and Calhoun, A. J. K. and Glanz, W. E.}, citeulike-article-id = {5240629}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33846895625&partnerID=40}, journal = {Northeastern Naturalist}, keywords = {amphibians, beaver-pond, castor, castor-canadensis, population-monitoring}, number = {4}, pages = {583--596}, posted-at = {2009-07-23 18:17:51}, priority = {2}, title = {Patterns of beaver colonization and wetland change in Acadia National Park}, url = {http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33846895625&partnerID=40}, volume = {13}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5240629 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5240629 N2 - The return of Castor canadensis (beaver) to areas of their former range has restored a natural disturbance regime to wetland landscapes in North America. We used aerial photographs to study wetland creation and modification by beaver in Acadia National Park, ME, during a period of beaver population expansion (1944-1997). We quantified the change in the number of available ponded wetlands in the landscape during the study period and documented an 89% increase in ponded wetlands between 1944 and 1997. Spatial and temporal patterns of beaver colonization and changes in wetland vegetation and hydrology were recorded at six time periods (1944, 1953, 1970, 1979, 1985, and 1997) for 33 beaver-created wetlands for which we had current amphibian assemblage data. Beaver colonization generally converted forested wetlands and riparian areas to open water and emergent wetlands, resulting in significant increases in the percentage of open water and emergent wetland habitat and a decrease in the percentage of forested wetland area at the study sites. Temporal colonization of beaver wetlands initially favored large sites occurring lower in the watersheds; sites that were impounded later were generally smaller, higher in the watershed, and more likely to be abandoned by the end of our study. Our results suggest that beaver have not only increased the number of available breeding sites in the landscape for pond-breeding amphibians, but also the resulting mosaic of active and abandoned beaver wetlands is likely to provide suitable breeding habitat for a diversity of species. IS - 4 JF - Northeastern Naturalist AD - Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, United States EP - 596 TI - Patterns of beaver colonization and wetland change in Acadia National Park VL - 13 SP - 583 KW - amphibians KW - beaver-pond KW - castor KW - castor-canadensis KW - population-monitoring AU - Cunningham, JM AU - Calhoun, AJK AU - Glanz, WE PY - 2006/// UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-33846895625&partnerID=40 ER -