An overview of the current state of the beaver’s environmental activity

Abstract

A review of scientific publications devoted to the study of the impact of beaver foraging and construction activities on the plant communities of small rivers in different natural zones has been conducted. Based on the analysis of publications devoted to the study of the beaver's environmental activity, its key role in the successional processes of phytocenoses of riverine biotopes in all natural zones within the native and acquired range is noted. The stages of succession transformations initiated by the beaver's vital activity are considered. The degree of succession transformations depends, first of all, on the density of populations and their stages of maturity. The successions are highly intensive, multidirectional and do not reach the final stage, but are concentrated in the floodplains of small rivers and streams, in the coastal strip of other reservoirs. The vital activity of beavers determines the floristic, faunal, and ecologicaltopological diversity of coastal biogeocenoses. An increase in the proportion of groups of aquatic and wetland plant species was noted, and an increase in biological diversity was revealed in the beaver pond backup zone, regardless of zonal factors. However, being strongly transformed, the coastal vegetation remains zonally conditioned, does not become azonal.