Canadian Rockies Beaver Project, Canada
Description
Location
Sketch
Information about lithology/geochemistry:
Sibbald Fen. A 1.3 km2 fen peatland with >30 associated beaver ponds located in the Upper Foothills Natural Subregion, approximately 70 km west of Calgary, Canada
Main Description
- Valley-bottom peatland
- Upper Foothills Natural Subregion. Site has up to 6.8 m of peat. Lying beneath the peat is 40 m of alluvium, underlain by black shale of marine origin
Enhance ecohydrological processes in novel ecosystem
YES
Apply complementary Ecohydrological processes in high impacted system
YES
This table presents the different categories of ecosystem services that ecosystem can provide, divided in:
Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.
Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.
Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.
Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
EH Principles
Quantification of the hydrological processes at catchment scale and mapping the impacts
ECOHYDROLOGY ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
We have an array of camera traps to collect information on beaver use of the site plus the use of beaver dams and ponds by other fauna.
Faunatechnology
We use drones to collect information on plant greenness.
Phytotechnology
The site includes a hydrometeorological station (includes eddy covariance), an array of shallow groundwater wells, stream gauges and beaver pond level monitoring stations.
Ecohydrological Infrastructure
We have a meteorological station (includes eddy covariance), multiple stream gauges, and an array of shallow groundwater wells and beaver pond level monitoring stations
Hydrological Flow
Major Issues
Expected Outcomes
The planned research will expose how networks of beaver-built structures radically change the water storage and release capacity of Rocky Mountain headwaters, and evaluate how to deploy one beaver management tool – beaver pond levelers – in a way that achieves a delicate balance between reduced flood extent in sensitive areas while still gaining some of the ecosystem functional benefits provided by beaver dams. As well, we will develop an early alert system to quickly identify and deploy beaver mitigation tools using crowdsourced data
Latest Results
Contacts
Cherie Westbrook
- cherie.westbrook@usask.ca
- University of Saskatchewan
Social ecohydrological system
EH Objectives
EH Methodology
Catchment Ecohydrological sub-system
Objectives
Stakeholders
Catchment Sociological sub-system
Activities