Beavers can turn streams into carbon stores – we measured how much

By Joshua Larsen, Associate Professor in Water Science, University of Birmingham
Annegret Larsen, Assistant Professor in Geography, Wageningen University
Lukas Hallberg, River Catchment Research Fellow, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham

Across Europe, beaver numbers are increasing after a long period of decline. As these aquatic mammals recolonise rivers, they are gradually rebuilding wetlands that once existed across many river valleys.

As geographers, we have been investigating how these changes could also affect the movement of carbon through river systems.

To find out, we measured the full carbon balance of a wetland created by beaver damming. Our new…

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