2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/24/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | USING HIGH-RESOLUTION REMOTELY-SENSED DATA TO ASSESS BEAVER-RELATED LAND COVER CHANGE IN NORTHEASTERN COASTAL WATERSHEDS | Virtual Platform
USING HIGH-RESOLUTION REMOTELY-SENSED DATA TO ASSESS BEAVER-RELATED LAND COVER CHANGE IN NORTHEASTERN COASTAL WATERSHEDS
While human activities have led to substantial environmental change, they are not the only organism causing change to the landscape. North American beaver (Castor canadensis) are ecosystem engineers and were once ubiquitous across North America before being trapped to near extinction across the continent by the beginning of the 20th century. Conservation efforts, changes to trapping laws, and abundant suitable habitat has spurred a resurgence in beaver populations in much of their previous range, particularly in New England. This beaver activity has led to additional landscape modification, causing alterations to hydrological and biogeochemical regimes. While evidence of their expansion is evident, comprehensive watershed-scale estimates of their abundance and distribution are lacking in many states such as Massachusetts. We mapped the areal expansion of beaver habitat in two watersheds in northeastern Massachusetts through classification of high-resolution aerial imagery. We found that in one study watershed, wetland area has increased by about 15% since the beginning of the beaver expansion, primarily at the expense of forested land. With such maps, we gain a better understanding of beaver propagation through these watersheds and how it relates to modified biogeochemical exports from river networks.
- Stream
- Ecosystem
- Conservation
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Presenters/Authors
Christopher Whitney
(), University of New Hampshire, chris.whitney@unh.edu;
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Wilfred Wollheim
(), University of New Hampshire, wil.wollheim@unh.edu;
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Michael Palace
(), University of New Hampshire, palace@guero.sr.unh.edu;
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Christina Herrick
(), University of New Hampshire, christina.herrick@unh.edu;
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