Beavers as regulators of substance and energy transfer in ecosystems of small rivers: Why is it difficult to get an overall picture?

Abstract

Beavers act as important agents which regulate the transfer of matter and energy from land to water and vice versa. Nevertheless, despite many examples of the regulation of energy and matter flows by beavers, we cannot extrapolate the results and get an overall picture of the role of beavers as regulators of ecosystem processes. This can be explained by the strong contextual dependency of the results of their habitat-forming activity and by changes in their behavior after repopulating the habitat area. The peculiarities of their influence on the habitat were analyzed using the example of small rivers that were recently populated by beavers and small rivers where beavers had already been living for 60–80 years.