Dam the continuum; a search for significant changes in selected parameters upstream & downstream of an active beaver dam on the East Branch of the Maple River.

Abstract

In this study nine separate parameters of water chemistry were tested at sites located upstream and downstream of an active beaver dam. The study was intended to determine whether there were measureable differences between the quality of the water once it has passed through a beaver dam and the accompanying impoundment. Of particular interest was the effect this barrier would have upon nutrients carried in the stream; specifically carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. No appreciable change could be noted in the relative abundance of any of the targeted nutrients in the East Branch of the Maple River. There was no evidence of nutrient loading in the impoundment as a direct result of the presence of the dam. Nor did the levels of these nutrients change in the area tested downstream of the dam. This would lead to the assumption that in nutrient poor river systems, such as the Maple River, the presence of an active beaver dam does not appreciably effect the quality of downstream water. It should, however, be remembered that this is one isolated study on one extremely nutrient poor stream, hardly a conclusive test.