Invasive beavers: Bad for the climate

Scientists documented the effects of invasive North American beavers (Castor canadensis) on carbon sequestration of a riparian forest in Tierra del Fuego.

Scientists estimated that 1.177 (+/- 0.103) megatonnes of carbon would be lost if all of the predicted 18,384 hectares (70 square miles) of habitat (14 percent of the total forested area) were colonized by beavers.

These results document the impacts of invasive mammals on large terrestrial carbon sinks and highlight the need for understanding the magnitude of such effects across both landscape- and regional-scales.

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