Glynnis Hood’s excellent research on geese and beavers has been making the rounds, but a substantial piece appeared on Science: The Last Word yesterday. In addition to studying how beavers impact waterfowl, the article mentions several ongoing projects with students.
MSC student Nils Anderson is currently completing his thesis, under Professor Hood’s guidance, on how the modification of aquatic habitats by beavers influences amphibians. It will detail interesting findings about the way that digging of channels by beavers aids in the dispersal of metamorphosed wood frogs. There is also some indication that breeding adults returning to the pond might use these channels in a preferential nature.
How cool is that? How’d you like to get your dissertation by counting frogs in a beaver pond? Our own friend Jeff Alvarez of the Wildlife project. He has apparently had an article accepted for publication in Herpetological Review this summer. Apparently beaver lodges are very important to the endangered red-legged frogs, which should surprise no one! Check out some of the other research Glynnis is involved with.
“Dr Larson and I currently have a paper in review that presents results relating to aquatic macro-invertebrates,” Professor Hood told me. “Again the channels dug by beavers in their ponds seem to be hotspots for various taxa of aquatic macro-invertebrates, the predators in particular. We also have a paper in preparation that will reveal the dramatic physical alterations beavers make to these ponds and how those alterations influence landscape connectivity.”
I recently asked Glynnis how she managed to get such awesome press coverage from a million sources all on the same day her article was released. She said that the campus has a media specialist that writes and handles all their releases, and that she was wonderful. I obviously agree!
Maybe all these rumors of research don’t mean much to the average reader so here’s something that is truly inspiring. It’s an community climate change awareness art project that just happened in Oregon. Look at this video and imagine that instead of reminding people about climate change and salmon, it was reminding people about all the wildlife that depends on beavers.
