Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Name

Systems Ecology

Department or School/College

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences

Committee Chair

Benjamin Colman

Commitee Members

Robert Hall, Michael DeGrandpre

Keywords

beaver dam analogs, stream restoration, carbon biogeochemistry, organic matter, carbon dioxide, methane

Publisher

University of Montana

Subject Categories

Biogeochemistry

Abstract

Beaver dam analogs (BDAs) have emerged as a climate adaptation and restoration strategy for water resource management in the drought-prone Western U.S., yet the focus has been on their influence on water quantity, overlooking effects on broader ecological components. By increasing water residence time and facilitating sediment retention, BDAs have the potential to influence carbon pools, fluxes, and concentrations. To examine the influence of BDAs on instream and riparian organic C and trace gases, we studied three intermountain headwater streams restored with BDAs two years after restoration during the summer of 2021. We found that there were subtle differences in instream dissolved organic C concentrations and trace gas fluxes of carbon dioxide CO2 and methane CH4 from riparian soils between sections of stream treated with and without BDAs. For concentrations of suspended particulate organic C and dissolved CO2 and methane CH4, differences were site-specific. The most notable differences occurred in benthic organic C pools, which were on average 3-fold higher in the BDA-complexes across sites, suggesting that BDAs show a promising avenue for C storage in restored stream ecosystems.

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