International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 217-228 http://ecoevopublisher.com/index.php/ijmec 21 7 Feature Study Open Access Ecosystem Engineering by Beavers: Impacts on Biodiversity and Hydrology Manman Li Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China Corresponding email: manman.li@hitar.org International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2025, Vol.15, No.5 doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2025.15.0022 Received: 24 Jul., 2025 Accepted: 30 Aug., 2025 Published: 16 Sep., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Li, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Li M.M., 2025, Ecosystem engineering by beavers: impacts on biodiversity and hydrology, International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 15(5): 217-228 (doi: 10.5376/ijmec.2025.15.0022) Abstract This study systematically explores the combined impact of beaver activities on hydrological processes and biodiversity. The integration of hydrological model analysis and ecological monitoring cases reveals that beaver dam construction can effectively regulate water flow velocity and water level, enhance the exchange between surface water and groundwater, and improve water quality and sedimentation dynamics. Meanwhile, its transformation activities have created diverse habitats such as wetlands and ponds, promoting the diversity of aquatic organisms, terrestrial plants and birds, and providing microhabitats for some rare species. Regional cases further demonstrate that beaver projects not only enhance ecological services such as water storage, flood control and carbon sinks, but also to some extent trigger conflicts between agricultural production and infrastructure. Beavers are of great value in maintaining ecological functions, restoring degraded wetlands, and enhancing the adaptability of ecosystems to climate change. Scientific management and rational guidance for the coexistence of beavers and human systems can help provide natural solutions for wetland protection and ecological restoration. The research on beaver ecological engineering not only deepens scientists' understanding of species-environment interaction, but also provides theoretical support and practical cases for wetland protection and ecological restoration. Keywords Beaver; Ecological engineering; Biodiversity; Hydrological process; Ecosystem services 1 Introduction The beaver (Castor spp.) is renowned for its behavior of building DAMS to transform the environment and is hailed as the "ecological engineer" of nature (Brazier et al., 2021; Fairfax and Westbrook, 2024). They have significantly changed the local topography and hydrological conditions by cutting down trees and building wooden DAMS to form ponds and wetlands in rivers and streams (Brazier et al., 2021; Grudzinski et al., 2022). This powerful ecological engineering ability is extremely rare among animals, and only a very few species can match it. Historically, due to excessive hunting in the fur trade, beaver populations in Eurasia and North America were once on the verge of extinction. However, in recent decades, their numbers have significantly recovered under legal protection and human reintroduction (Wrobel, 2020; Halley et al., 2021). Today, beavers are redistributed in most of their original habitats and have become an important engineering species in the ecosystem (Halley et al., 2021). Beavers' activities not only meet their own habitat needs but also have a profound impact on the surrounding environment. As a "key species", the existence of beavers can influence the habitats of many other species through physical creation, and thus holds a unique position in maintaining the structure and function of ecosystems (Fairfax and Westbrook, 2024). The wetlands and slow-flow environments formed by beavers building DAMS have profound impacts on multiple aspects of the ecosystem, including hydrology, water quality, habitat heterogeneity and biodiversity (Grudzinski et al., 2022). Beaver DAMS intercept water flow, increase surface retained water volume, raise water level, expand flood area, and transform the originally narrow and rapid river section into still water ponds and peat wetlands (Brazier et al., 2021). This change in hydrological conditions not only helps to reduce the downstream flood peak flow and smooth out the flood (that is, the so-called "natural flood storage" effect) (Puttock et al., 2021; Thompson et al., 2021), it also enhanced the drought resistance capacity of the basin and increased the water supply during drought periods (Thompson et al., 2021).
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