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Integrating Beaver Ponds into the Carbon Emission Budget of Boreal Aquatic Networks: A Case Study at the Watershed Scale

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Abstract

The ongoing recovery of beaver populations across the boreal biome of North America entails an increasing proliferation of beaver ponds in aquatic networks. Ecosystem-scale studies have demonstrated that beaver ponds are hotspots of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) production. However, beaver pond carbon (C) emissions have rarely been incorporated into estimates of inland water C budgets. Therefore, this potentially represents a major source of uncertainty for the C budget of the boreal biome. In this study, we combined a detailed geospatial analysis with measured CO2 and CH4 diffusive and ebullitive emission rates to estimate beaver pond total C emissions and incorporated these into a whole-aquatic network assessment. We carried out this study in a boreal watershed (13,105 km2) located in Québec, Canada. Our results show that beaver ponds covered 77 km2, representing 9% of the total aquatic surface area in the watershed. We estimate that beaver ponds contribute 7% of the total C emissions from the aquatic network and are responsible for 6% and 18% of the total CO2 and CH4 emitted annually, respectively. We project that by 2055, beaver pond CO2 and CH4 emissions for the same watershed may increase 17% and 56%, respectively, due to a combination of expanding beaver habitat and increasing temperatures. Our results highlight the role of beaver ponds not only in current aquatic CH4 emissions but also as a positive feedback loop for climate change, with significant radiative forcing potential given a scenario of climate warming and beaver population growth.

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https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/CZ2HWQ. https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/XK54RX

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Acknowledgements

We thank the authorities of the l’Institut de recherche sur les forêts of the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) for access to the Lac Duparquet Research Station. We thank Margaret Kalacska of the McGill Department of Geography for guidance with the geospatial analysis, and Emily Fairfax for advice on uncertainty calculations. We also thank Alice Parkes for coordinating laboratory analyses and data processing, Roy Nahas for GIS analyses, Michela de Melo for the contribution to accuracy assessments, and all the members of CarBBAS team, including undergraduate summer students, who participated in the various field campaigns over the course of the study. This work is part of the research program of the CarBBAS (Carbon Biogeochemistry in Boreal Aquatic Systems) Research program, co-funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Hydro-Québec (NSERC Grant #592000).

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  1. Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie (GRIL), Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Facundo Smufer, Annick St-Pierre & Paul A. del Giorgio

  2. GRECO-Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Girona, Spain

    Joan P. Casas-Ruiz

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  1. Facundo Smufer
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  2. Joan P. Casas-Ruiz
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  4. Paul A. del Giorgio
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Correspondence to Facundo Smufer.

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Author Contributions: All authors contributed to the study design, data analysis, and writing of manuscript. Annick St-Pierre and Paul A. del Giorgio conducted field work.

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Smufer, F., Casas-Ruiz, J.P., St-Pierre, A. et al. Integrating Beaver Ponds into the Carbon Emission Budget of Boreal Aquatic Networks: A Case Study at the Watershed Scale. Ecosystems 26, 1309–1325 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00835-3

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