A few hardy pioneers slogged north across the tundra decades ago. One person walked so far that he rubbed the skin off of his tail. His kind have colonies scattered throughout the tundra in Alaska and Canada. There are animals in the far north.
Concerns are growing and locals and scientists are paying close attention. Due to a warming climate, researchers have observed that the dams are built faster. The dams could pose a threat to the migrations of fish.
According to Thomas Jung, senior wildlife biologist for Canada's Whitehorse government, bears really change the environment. Before they were extirpated by fur trappers, millions of beavers shaped the flow of North American waters. Everything from the height of the water table to the shrubs and trees that grow in the area is affected by the dam.
Until a few decades ago, the northern edge of the beaver's range was defined by the boreal forest, because the animals rely on plants for food and material. The tundra has become more hospitable to the large rodents due to earlier snow melt and a longer growing season.
There were no beaver ponds in the 1950's. In a recent study, Ken Tape, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, scanned satellite images of almost every stream, river and lake in the Alaskan tundra and found 11,377 beaver ponds.
Expansion may be necessary.
The new dams could do more than change the flow of water. The warm areas are created by the deeper water in the ponds that don't freeze in the winter. Warming of the pond water and thaw of the ground releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
The far- north is vulnerable to the kinds of changes that beavers can cause because of their fragile nature. According to a paleobotanist from Trinity College Dublin, the tundra may be the environment most threatened by climate change.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is inferred from the number and size of pores on the leaves. Plants with bigger and less stomata are seen when there is high carbon dioxide atmospheres. When the atmospheric CO 2 was higher, the forests grew in the highArctic.
During greenhouse intervals in the Earth's deep past, we have forests all the way up to 86 degrees north and south. There was no place on Earth where the climate was too cold for trees to grow. The animals that rely on trees can thrive. Evidence shows that the first dam-building skills of the beaver were developed in a forested area.
The polar regions warmed faster than the rest of the planet because of the global circulation patterns of the ocean and atmosphere. The spread of shrubs and trees onto the warming tundra appears unavoidable because of the rise in atmospheric CO 2 levels.
The moose that feast on tall, dense growths of shrubs that didn't exist there 70 years ago have been tracked by tape. The impact of animals on the landscape is different.
The best way to think of the animals is as a problem. It's not moose. There is a fire.
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