Beaver creates early successional hotspots for water beetles

Abstract Beavers ( Castor spp.) are ecosystem engineers that induce local disturbance and ecological succession, which turns terrestrial into aquatic ecosystems creates habitat heterogeneity in a landscape. have been proposed as tool for biodiversity conservation restoration. So far, most research has compared beaver wetlands non-beaver wetlands, but few studies explored how beaver-created succession affects specific taxa. In this study, we investigated water beetles responded to different successional stages of beaver-disturbed landscape at Evo southern Finland. We sampled with 1-L activity traps 20 ponds, including: 5 new old former never engineered ponds. found had higher species richness abundance than could support (321%) (671%) wetlands. think beetle diversity ponds resulted from amelioration (available lentic water, shallow shores, vegetation, low fish abundance) food source enhancement (an increase both dead live prey) created by dams floods. conclude using beavers tool, or imitating their way flooding, can be beneficial wetland restoration if population densities monitored ensure the availability newly colonizable sites.