Citation
Alteration of North American streams by beaver
TL;DR
Beavers create wetland habitat through dam construction
This paper documents how beavers as ecosystem engineers create wetland habitat, increase biodiversity, and modify hydrology across landscapes. Beavers represent less than 1% of vertebrate biomass but their dam-building creates habitat supporting 50+ species.
The beaver case demonstrates keystone engineering - creating physical infrastructure that enables an ecosystem. This parallels organizational keystones like ARM or TSMC that create technical infrastructure enabling entire industries.
Key Findings from Naiman et al. (1988)
- Beavers create wetland habitat through dam construction
- Beaver-created wetlands support 50+ species that disappear when beavers removed
- Beaver represent <1% of vertebrate biomass but create habitat for majority of wetland species
- Physical habitat modification (engineering) creates disproportionate ecosystem impact