Dam busy: beavers and their influence on the structure and function of river corridor hydrology, geomorphology, biogeochemistry and ecosystems.

Beavers (castor fiber, castor canadensis) are the most influential mammalian ecosystem engineer, heavily modifying river corridors and influencing hydrology, geomorphology, nutrient cycling, and ecology. As an agent of disturbance, they achieve this first and foremost through dam construction, which impounds flow and increases the extent of open water, and from which all other landscape and ecosystem impacts follow. Following a long period of local and regional eradication, beaver populations have been recovering and expanding throughout Europe and North America, as well as an introduced species in South America, prompting a need to comprehen.