Storage of Soil Carbon by Beaver Dams and Beaver Dam Analogs
Faculty Mentor
Camille McNeely
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
5-8-2024 11:15 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Biology
Abstract
Beaver dams are an important means of soil buildup and carbon storage in streams and wetlands, as well as the storage of fresh water. This is important because the amount of carbon that is stored in the soil is an indicator of soil health and quality and counteracts the anthropogenic emissions of inorganic carbon into the atmosphere. However, the culling of beavers over time has decimated their populations and contributed to the loss of wetlands. In such cases where there are no beavers to dam streams, we can turn to beaver dam analogs, known as BDAs, which are human engineered dams that seek to function with the same purpose as natural dams. The purpose of this research is to study how much organic carbon is able to be sequestered by soils over time, and by proxy, how effective BDAs are at carbon and water storage. This can be studied by method of loss on ignition, meaning that soil samples are taken and burned, and the final weight of the sample is compared to the initial weight, seeking to solve the questions of which landform, i.e., stream bank or upland, has the most carbon. My hypothesis on this matter is that beaver dam sites on the floodplain will have more carbon storage compared to sites with no beavers, due to the general shape of the floodplain and streams themselves.
Recommended Citation
Novak, Melanie, "Storage of Soil Carbon by Beaver Dams and Beaver Dam Analogs" (2024). 2024 Symposium. 11.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2024/ps_2024/p2_2024/11
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Storage of Soil Carbon by Beaver Dams and Beaver Dam Analogs
PUB NCR
Beaver dams are an important means of soil buildup and carbon storage in streams and wetlands, as well as the storage of fresh water. This is important because the amount of carbon that is stored in the soil is an indicator of soil health and quality and counteracts the anthropogenic emissions of inorganic carbon into the atmosphere. However, the culling of beavers over time has decimated their populations and contributed to the loss of wetlands. In such cases where there are no beavers to dam streams, we can turn to beaver dam analogs, known as BDAs, which are human engineered dams that seek to function with the same purpose as natural dams. The purpose of this research is to study how much organic carbon is able to be sequestered by soils over time, and by proxy, how effective BDAs are at carbon and water storage. This can be studied by method of loss on ignition, meaning that soil samples are taken and burned, and the final weight of the sample is compared to the initial weight, seeking to solve the questions of which landform, i.e., stream bank or upland, has the most carbon. My hypothesis on this matter is that beaver dam sites on the floodplain will have more carbon storage compared to sites with no beavers, due to the general shape of the floodplain and streams themselves.
