2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/21/2019 | 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM | A DAM SIGHT BETTER OR WORSE? HOW CHANGES IN HUMAN AND BEAVER IMPOUNDMENTS AFFECT RIVER NETWORK BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES | 250 AB
A DAM SIGHT BETTER OR WORSE? HOW CHANGES IN HUMAN AND BEAVER IMPOUNDMENTS AFFECT RIVER NETWORK BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
There are more than 14,000 dams in New England alone with over 100 of them already having been removed and many more slated for removal in the future. Meanwhile, a resurgence in the beaver population has resulted in the construction of countless dams across New England which has led to the impounding of many streams. We seek to understand how human dam removals and beaver dam construction affect reach-scale biogeochemical processes and what implications there may be for river network-scale nutrient fluxes. We analyzed samples for nutrients and gases in impoundments across northeastern MA as well as estimated aquatic metabolism in a single reservoir and beaver pond. Preliminary results indicate the human reservoir has greater NPP compared to the beaver pond. CH4 concentrations were highest in the beaver pond while N2O and N2 were generally higher in human reservoirs, indicating different dominant processes occurring between impoundments. These results suggest that as river networks transition from being dominated by human reservoirs to beaver ponds, shifts in biogeochemical processes are also likely to occur. With dam removals ongoing and the beaver population increasing, this could have significant impacts on network-scale nutrient fluxes.
- Dams
- Hotspot
- Network
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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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