Beaver dam and lodge
| Title | Info |
|---|---|
| Common name | Beaver |
| Scientific name | Castor canadensis |
| Taxonomic group | Castoridae |
| Source | Dan L. Perlman |
| Ecosystems | Wetlands, aquatic; Forests |
| Forests | Temperate coniferous forest |
| Wetlands and aquatic | Lakes, ponds |
| Nutrient cycles | Water |
| Ecological interactions | Herbivory; Ecosystem engineering |
| Selection and adaptations | Selection |
| Selection | Morphology |
| Change over time | Disturbance; Succession |
| Succession | Secondary succession |
| Disturbance | Other |
| Organisms | Animals |
| Animals | Mammals |
| Date | 1995 |
| Location | Colorado,USA,North America |
Beaver dam and lodge, Colorado. Beavers can have tremendous impacts on the ecosystems where they live. They can flood a forest, killing all of the trees, by damming a stream and creating a pond. This image shows a beaver dam in the foreground and a beaver lodge or home in the background. Once the pond is created, many species of aquatic and wetland species gain new habitat. Eventually, when the beavers move to a different site, their dam will break, the pond will drain, and the slow process of succession will begin on the wet soil left behind. First a meadow will form, then shrubs and pioneer tree species will begin growing, and eventually a mature forest of late successional tree species will develop, decades after the beavers leave. Because of the profound changes they can spur, beavers are sometimes referred to as ecosystem engineers or keystone species, due to the outsized impact of their behavior on local ecosystems. Like other rodents, the beaver?s teeth keep growing throughout life. Without their remarkable teeth, they would be unable to cut trees and create dams.
