#fisheries — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

💧🌏 Greg Cocks @[email protected] · 2026-07-28 · 05:07 UTC

Busy Beavers - The Turbidity Signature Of Ecosystem Engineers At Work
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https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70661 <-- shared paper
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H/T @alan Puttock
“Beavers are the quintessential ecosystem engineers. In slow-flowing streams, they create complex wetlands with ponds by building dams and canals that can positively impact biodiversity, hydrology and water quality. These activities can interchangeably capture or release sediment along the watercourse. To date this has not been quantified at the resolution of rainfall events or beaver activity. This study used 15-min frequency, sustained monitoring upstream and downstream of a newly establishing beaver wetland to measure episodic changes in water turbidity at an event resolution. Monitoring showed no significant differences between upstream and downstream turbidity over 160 days when the first pair of beavers, known not to be building dams or canals, were resident. Shortly after introduction of another beaver pair, however, dam building, burrows and canal excavations were quickly observed, resulting in the creation of a complex beaver wetland between 2021 and 2024. Monitoring over 375 days during this period showed significant differences. Downstream turbidity was significantly higher overall than upstream: 13.1 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU) compared to 4.2 NTU. Stochastic spikes in downstream turbidity during the study period not recorded upstream were associated with dam building and burrowing. Overall, there was no significant difference in turbidity loads, which was at least partially explained by a reduction in discharge downstream, particularly in higher flows, during the dam building period. This demonstrates a complex system with the trapping of influent sediment, the storing of water and the periodic release of beaver wetland sediment leading to net balance in loads. These results help provide context for other studies which have used temporally discrete sampling campaigns rather than continuous high-frequency monitoring. They provide a unique insight into the downstream impacts of a rapidly developing beaver wetland over its first three and a half years in a landscape that hasn't had beavers for over 400 years…"
#hydromorphic #water #hydrology #dam #beaverdam #waterquality #biodiversity #ecology #benefits #NatureBasedSolutions #Wetlands #Ecology #Biodiversity #EnvironmentalScience #Wildlife #Ecosystem #bioviversity #conservation #restoration #landscaperecovery #floodmanagement #FloodMitigation #flooding #energy #floodrisk #sustainability #wetlands #hydrography #dams #impoundment #deadwood #waterresources #landscapeengineer #benefits #vegetation #ecology #ecosystem #riversystemsstabilisation #naturalwaterregulation #resilience #valleysreborn #fisheries #invertebrates #extremeweather #floodflows #sediment #baseflow #drought #landmanagement #naturalsystems #landuse #monitoring #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal

#hydromorphic #water #hydrology #dam #beaverdam #waterquality

💧🌏 Greg Cocks @[email protected] · 2026-07-14 · 03:00 UTC

Eager Beavers - Rodents Engineer Czech Wetland Project After Years Of Human Delay [ecosystem engineers]
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/beavers-save-czech-taxpayers-by-flooding-ex-army-training-site <-- shared technical media article
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver-engineered_dam_in_the_Czech_Republic <-- shared wiki technical page
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https://phys.org/news/2025-02-fine-beavers-czech-treasury-million.html <-- shared technical article
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https://youtu.be/GSTw8qmBP4Y?si=XK2Iy2pAltW91flj <-- shared video (Czech)
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H/T @ScienceGirl
"We don't expect any conflict with the beaver in the next 10 years," ~ Bohumil Fiser from the Czech Nature Conservation Agency
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“For seven years, planners struggled to complete a $1.2 million wetland restoration project in the Brdy region of the Czech Republic. The goal was to build a dam that would improve water management and bring back valuable wetland habitat, but the project remained trapped in a maze of permits and approvals.
Then a family of eight Eurasian beavers did what engineers had planned… without permits, machinery, or a budget.
The beavers built a network of dams in almost the exact area chosen for the proposed project, naturally restoring the wetland system officials had spent years trying to create. After seeing the results, authorities decided there was little point continuing with the original human-built dam.
Although some reports suggested the beavers completed the work overnight, experts say their construction likely took several weeks. The reason it seemed sudden is that the animals quietly worked away until their finished dams became impossible to miss.
Beavers are known as “ecosystem engineers” because their behaviour can reshape entire environments. By cutting trees and blocking streams, they create ponds and wetlands that support countless species, including fish, amphibians, insects, birds, and mammals.
Their wetlands also act as natural water reservoirs, helping during droughts, reducing flood risks, filtering water, storing carbon, and keeping landscapes wetter during wildfires…
Once heavily hunted across Europe, beaver populations have been recovering thanks to conservation efforts, proving that sometimes nature can solve problems humans spend years trying to fix…"
#water #hydrology #KlabavaRiver #Czech #BrdyRegion #protected #CzechRepublic #armytraining #military #beaver #Eurasianbeavers #dam #beaverdam #waterquality #restoration #biodiversity #crayfish #wetland #ecology #benefits #Beavers #NatureBasedSolutions #Wetlands #Ecology #Biodiversity #Agroforestry #EnvironmentalScience #Conservation #Wildlife #Ecosystem #bioviversity #conservation #restoration #landscaperecovery #EcosystemEngineers #nature #floodmanagement #FloodMitigation #flood #flooding #energy #floodrisk #sustainability #wetlands #hydrography #dams #impoundment #deadwood #waterresources #landscapeengineer #agriculture #benefits #vegetation #ecology #ecosystem #riversystemsstabilisation #naturalwaterregulation #resilience #drought #wildfire #valleysreborn #slowdetermination #fisheries #invertebrates #extremeweather #floodflows #sediment #baseflow #drought #landmanagement #naturalsystems #landuse #ecosystemengineers #watermanagement

#water #hydrology #klabavariver #czech #brdyregion #protected

Robin Forlonge Patterson @[email protected] · 2026-07-05 · 23:26 UTC

https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevieve-r-19341240/

#Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

'When I first became involved in advocating for eastern #tarakihi in 2019, #Fisheries New Zealand’s own #science estimated the eastern stock had fallen to around 16% of its unfished #biomass—well below the 20% soft limit and nowhere near the #Harvest Strategy Standard target of 40%.

'Six years later, we’re paying substantially more at the checkout, yet the eastern stock remains well under a rebuilding-plan target.
'Recent projections suggest it is still hovering around the lower management thresholds, with recovery far from assured under current catch settings.
'That should concern every New Zealander.
We’ve somehow normalised the idea that a fish can become increasingly expensive while remaining chronically depleted. Consumers are paying more, commercial operators continue #fishing, and we’re repeatedly told the #fishery is being managed “#sustainably”.

'If this is what #sustainability looks like, perhaps we need to rethink what the word means.

'A truly #sustainable fishery shouldn’t require decades of rebuilding while the stock remains well below the level our own management system says it should achieve. It shouldn’t leave us debating whether 10–20% of the original spawning biomass is acceptable, and it most certainly shouldn’t have us celebrating modest improvements while remaining nowhere near the target.'
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'Perhaps the real question isn’t why the price has risen, it’s whether we’ve convinced ourselves that #depletion has become an acceptable definition of sustainability.
#fisheries #rma #cma #rcep #fisheriesact #protect #enhance #restore

#nz #coastal #health #woke #christchurch #tarakihi

Nonilex @[email protected] · 2026-06-02 · 16:26 UTC

The observation station off Cape Hatteras, NC, collected data about #coastal #currents that influence the #weather & commercial #fisheries along the US East Coast.

Mike Muglia, professor of coastal studies at East Carolina University, used the data to understand waves, currents & sea life for a marine #RenewableEnergy test site in Nags Head, NC, that was funded by the #Energy Department.

#ClimateChange #Ocean #MarineLife #MarineEcosystems #NSF #ClimateCrisis #reasearch #science #Trump

#coastal #currents #weather #fisheries #renewableenergy #energy

Pia @[email protected] · 2025-08-02 · 15:32 UTC

"Ocean acidification is already impacting many ocean species, especially organisms like oysters and corals that make hard shells and skeletons by combining calcium and carbonate from seawater." www.noaa.gov/education/re... #CO2 #AcidRain #marine #ecosystem #environment #fisheries #health #security

Ocean acidification