Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Water

Author ORCID Identifier

Joseph Wheaton https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8361-8150

Bethany Neilson https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8829-5082;

Volume

16

Issue

11

Publisher

MDPI AG

Publication Date

5-25-2024

Journal Article Version

Version of Record

Keywords

beaver, water storage, water balance, streamflow, snow water equivalent, beaver dams

First Page

1

Last Page

32

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

Dam building by beaver (Castor spp.) slows water movement through montane valleys, increasing transient water storage and the diversity of residence times. In some cases, water storage created by beaver dam construction is correlated to changes in streamflow magnitude and timing. However, the total amount of additional surface and groundwater storage that beaver dams may create (and, thus, their maximum potential impact on streamflow) has not been contextualized in the water balance of larger river basins. We estimate the potential transient water storage increases that could be created at 5, 25, 50, and 100% of maximum modeled beaver dam capacity in the Bear River basin, USA, by adapting the height above nearest drainage (HAND) algorithm to spatially estimate surface water storage. Surface water storage estimates were combined with the MODFLOW groundwater model to estimate potential increases in groundwater storage throughout the basin. We tested four scenarios to estimate potential transient water storage increases resulting from the construction of 1179 to 34,897 beaver dams, and estimated surface water storage to range from 57.5 to 72.8 m3 per dam and groundwater storage to range from 182.2 to 313.3 m3 per dam. Overall, we estimate that beaver dam construction could increase transient water storage by up to 10.38 million m3 in the Bear River basin. We further contextualize beaver dam-related water storage increases with streamflow, reservoir, and snowpack volumes.

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