Impacts of Beaver Systems on Lateral and Downstream Hydrological Connectivity

海狸系统对横向和下游水文连通性的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-03681
• 负责人: Westbrook, Cherie
• 金额: $ 3.72万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=754849
• 关键词: Impacts; Beaver; Systems; Lateral; Downstream

Many of Canada's waterways are home to the beaver, an iconic ecosystem engineer. I study how beavers `engineer' waterways so as to inform holistic water resources management and beaver management. Beavers are best known for building dams and cutting trees. But, they also excavate extensive networks of canals which they use for accessing and transporting woody foodstuffs. While the basics of beaver dam and canal construction are known, we know surprisingly little about how beaver dams regulate water storage and flowpaths, especially at the scale of entire beaver dam networks, and almost nothing about the role of beaver canals in collecting and conveying water to streams. Hence, my plan for the next six years is for my students and I to advance our understanding of the physical structures built by beavers (dams and canals) and how their spatial arrangement along waterways affects water cycling. Our studies will require extensive field work in waterways located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, which is the primary supply of freshwater to most of western Canada. In study one we will use drones to take high-resolution images of beaver dams and develop novel computer vision techniques to build digital models of them at a scale previously unattainable. We will use the digital models to learn about how the structural intricacies of beaver dams regulate their backwater effects (ponding) and permeability. In study two we will use trail cameras to get a time-lapse of the flow path that streamflow takes past each beaver dam in a network, i.e. the dam flow state. The time-lapses of dam flow state will be coupled with surface and shallow groundwater measurements to determine how beaver dams of different flow states affect the amount of water that travels downstream vs. returns to the atmosphere or becomes stored in shallow groundwater. In study three we will use a combination of trail cameras and streamflow measurements to determine how and when beaver canals collect water and convey it to the main stream channel. Overall, this program of research will develop innovative tools to characterize the inner workings of beaver dams and expose how networks of beaver-built structures radically change the internal plumbing of river corridors. One key application of the proposed work is that it is uniquely positioned to uncover vital and foundational information useful to mitigating changes in surface water and thermokarst development that are occurring in Canada's low arctic tundra region as beavers continue to encroach into these areas owing to climate change. The proposed research program will create a rich training experience for 11 students and one postdoctoral fellow, preparing them for careers as field ecohydrologists ready to solve Canada's emerging water crisis and innovate to restore the health and function of waterways in Canada that are degraded.

加拿大许多水道都是标志性生态系统工程师海狸的所在地。我研究海狸“工程师”水道如何为整体水资源管理和海狸管理提供信息。 海狸以建造水坝和砍伐树木而闻名。但是，他们还挖掘了用于访问和运输木质食品的广泛运河网络。尽管Beaver大坝和运河建设的基础知识是已知的，但我们对海狸大坝如何调节水的存储和流道知之甚少，尤其是在整个Beaver Dam Networks的规模上，而对海狸运河在收集和输送水中的作用几乎一无所有到流。因此，我接下来六年的计划是让我和我的学生促进我们对海狸（大坝和运河）建造的物理结构的理解，以及它们沿着水道的空间布置如何影响水循环。 我们的研究将需要在加拿大落基山脉的水道上进行大量野外工作，这是加拿大西部大部分地区的淡水的主要供应。在研究中，我们将使用无人机拍摄海狸水坝的高分辨率图像，并开发新颖的计算机视觉技术，以先前无法实现的规模构建其数字模型。我们将使用数字模型来了解海狸水坝的结构复杂性如何调节其后水作用（浮雕）和渗透性。在研究二中，我们将使用越野摄像机来获得流程流的延时，该流程道会使流经过网络中的每个海狸大坝，即大坝流量状态。大坝流量状态的时间段将与表面和浅地下水测量结果结合在一起，以确定不同流量状态的海狸大坝如何影响向下游与回到大气返回或存储在浅层地下水中的水的水量。在研究三中，我们将使用越野摄像机和流量测量的组合来确定海狸管如何以及何时将水收集到主流通道。 总体而言，该研究计划将开发创新的工具来表征海狸大坝的内部运作，并揭示海狸建筑网络如何从根本上改变河流走廊的内部管道。拟议工作的一个关键应用是，它具有独特的位置，可以发现重要的基础信息，可用于减轻加拿大低北极苔原地区的地表水和热力学发展的变化，因为海狸继续侵占由于气候变化而侵占这些地区。拟议的研究计划将为11名学生和一名博士后研究员创造丰富的培训经验，为他们作为现场生态水文学家的职业做准备，准备解决加拿大新兴的水危机并创新以恢复加拿大加拿大水道的健康和功能。