From space, Alaska's beavers are as influential as wildfiresTape had previously used satellite imagery to look for changes in vegetation — slow and subtle shifts in the appearance of the tundra.
Beaver engineering dramatically altered a tundra stream on the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska between 2003 and 2016. The blue arrow shows flow direction, and magenta arrows denote dams.The satellite images answer two key questions for studying any animal population: Where are they? And how many of them are there?
From fish and vegetation, to water flow and water quality, to all the downstream effects that might have, there's a lot left to study.Ken Tape Tape expects these pond areas will start to resemble boreal forest more than tundra. The still water will likely attract waterfowl and new species of fish."If you like the Arctic the way it was, the old Arctic, then beavers are bad for that. Whereas if you kind of embrace the new Arctic, well, then beavers are one of your champions," Tape said.
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