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Modeling intrinsic potential for beaver (Castor canadensis) habitat to inform restoration and climate change adaptation
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 2, p e0192538 (2018), PLoS ONE
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2018.
-
Abstract
- Through their dam-building activities and subsequent water storage, beaver have the potential to restore riparian ecosystems and offset some of the predicted effects of climate change by modulating streamflow. Thus, it is not surprising that reintroducing beaver to watersheds from which they have been extirpated is an often-used restoration and climate-adaptation strategy. Identifying sites for reintroduction, however, requires detailed information about habitat factors—information that is not often available at broad spatial scales. Here we explore the potential for beaver relocation throughout the Snohomish River Basin in Washington, USA with a model that identifies some of the basic building blocks of beaver habitat suitability and does so by relying solely on remotely sensed data. More specifically, we developed a generalized intrinsic potential model that draws on remotely sensed measures of stream gradient, stream width, and valley width to identify where beaver could become established if suitable vegetation were to be present. Thus, the model serves as a preliminary screening tool that can be applied over relatively large extents. We applied the model to 5,019 stream km and assessed the ability of the model to correctly predict beaver habitat by surveying for beavers in 352 stream reaches. To further assess the potential for relocation, we assessed land ownership, use, and land cover in the landscape surrounding stream reaches with varying levels of intrinsic potential. Model results showed that 33% of streams had moderate or high intrinsic potential for beaver habitat. We found that no site that was classified as having low intrinsic potential had any sign of beavers and that beaver were absent from nearly three quarters of potentially suitable sites, indicating that there are factors preventing the local population from occupying these areas. Of the riparian areas around streams with high intrinsic potential for beaver, 38% are on public lands and 17% are on large tracts of privately-owned timber land. Thus, although there are a large number of areas that could be suitable for relocation and restoration using beavers, current land use patterns may substantially limit feasibility in these areas.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Atmospheric Science
Topography
Beaver
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Social Sciences
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
lcsh:Medicine
Wetland
01 natural sciences
Geographical locations
Flooding
Land Use
lcsh:Science
Mammals
Climatology
education.field_of_study
Multidisciplinary
geography.geographical_feature_category
Geography
biology
Eukaryota
Adaptation, Physiological
Habitats
Beavers
Habitat
Vertebrates
Watersheds
Research Article
Freshwater Environments
Washington
Climate Change
Population
Rodentia
Land cover
Human Geography
Rodents
010603 evolutionary biology
Rivers
Streamflow
biology.animal
Animals
education
Ecosystem
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Riparian zone
Hydrology
Castor canadensis
Landforms
geography
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
lcsh:R
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Aquatic Environments
Geomorphology
biology.organism_classification
United States
Physical Geography
Wetlands
Amniotes
North America
Earth Sciences
Environmental science
lcsh:Q
People and places
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c85afd0473438c35be1542a1b2cd2a9c