Effect of life sustaining activity of European beavers (Castor fiber L.) on some environmental parameters

A transforming effect of European beavers’ life sustaining activity (dams’ building and inhabitation construction) on the biogeocenosis of the area was registed. The beavers’ influence on some physicochemical soil characteristics and water parameters in Ustyug area of Vologda region was studied. To achieve this goal the following tasks were set and implemented: 1) to study quantitative and age composition of the beaver habitation; 2) to analyze the effect of the beavers’ life sustaining activity on the habitat, in particular, on some parameters of physicochemical soil characteristics. The assessment of the beavers’ effect on the water habitat was given. Standard methods of route investigation, visual examination, and analysis of the soil and water samples in laboratory conditions were used. In the process of the research it was revealed that life sustaining activity of the beaver family promotes considerable increase in the organic matter of the soil and in NPK-complex. Beavers’ activity doesn’t have any significant effect on water characteristics. The increase in the organic part of the soil assists in restoration of phytocenosis in the area left after beavers’ migration. Thus, the habitat changed by the beaver family has the ability and opportunity for restoration.