Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID AK_2025_003

Impacts of beaver engineering on arctic waterborne pathogens and aquatic community composition

Institute: Alaska
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $15,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $15,000

Principal Investigators: Sebastian Zavoico

Project Summary: Beavers are ecosystem engineers whose impacts in southern latitudes are well researched. Recently, beavers have expanded their ranges into the arctic tundra, where their impacts likely differ due to the presence of perennially frozen soil. Based on current geophysical research and observations, we hypothesize that beavers accelerate the effects of climate change in the Arctic, making arctic stream and river biota look more like boreal streams and introduce pathogens like giardia. The aim of my project is to identify giardia, fish and invertebrate species and compare ecological communities between lakes, streams affected by beavers and streams unaffected by beavers. I expect to find species more associated with boreal ecosystems as well as elevated presence of giardia in the beaver-affected streams compared to areas unaffected by beavers. This work will help evaluate the overall effects of beaver range expansion on stream ecosystems, including the subsistence resources streams provide.