The Unusual Connection Between Beavers, Permafrost And Climate Change

[UngulateNerd92]

Once nearly extinct, beavers are now inadvertently contributing to climate change.

Blame it on the beavers: The industrious, buck-toothed rodents are inadvertently contributing to climate change.

As temperatures warm and boreal beavers migrate north, they're creating ponds — more than 10,000 of them — that are flooding millennia-old permafrost. When thawed, permafrost can release dangerous greenhouse gasses such as carbon and methane.

University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Ken Tape says the beavers are, in effect, creating dangerous oases around the Arctic. He's one of the authors of a recent study on beavers and permafrost.

The Unusual Connection Between Beavers, Permafrost And Climate Change

 

[Jurek7]

Hmm, does it mean that almost extinction of beavers in the 19-20. century produced a noticeable drop in temperature?

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Hmm, does it mean that almost extinction of beavers in the 19-20. century produced a noticeable drop in temperature?

As the article states, the beaver did not previously have a foothold within the Arctic and has only just begun a range expansion into this biome from Boreal forests. This is due to more favourable climatic conditions thanks to global warming that help to facilitate colonization / range expansion.

It would seem that this is a contemporary problem rather than one with any historical roots going back further than the mid 20th century so I don't think the near extinction of the beaver in the 18th / 19th century really bears any connection to this.