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Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus Castor native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The European beaver (Castor fiber) has an undoubtedly positive impact on the environment: it is a key species, which means that it plays a critical role in the biodiversity of ecosystems and that many species, some endangered or threatened, rely on beavers and the landscapes they build. In this way, there are many benefits that humans and other animal species can get from beavers. Also, dam construction has the potential to alter the hydrology, geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystems of river corridors and the feedbacks between them, thus the beaver is also recognized as an 'ecosystem engineer'. However, beavers can also generate conflict situations because not all watercourses can withstand the intense construction of dams. Thus, in many contexts, the engineering activities of the beaver may come into direct conflict with other priorities: agriculture, urban land use, forestry, irrigation. Beavers occasionally damage selected trees, but the worst damage is caused by their burrows, which raise water levels in streams, ponds or lakes, flooding the ground and frequently killing large areas of valuable trees in the forest. There are proven costs to agriculture that result from the impact of beavers, and these will have to be fully taken into account in future decisions to manage the beaver population. The ecological impact of the Eurasian beaver on habitat structure has been little investigated in Europe and includes in particular the changes that take place during dam construction activities. The purpose of this study was to summarize the publications that analyse the ecological impact of beaver (Castor fiber). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beavers have the ability to modify ecosystems profoundly to meet their ecological needs, with significant associated hydrological, geomorphological, ecological, and societal impacts. To bring together understanding of the role that beavers may play in the management of water resources, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, this article reviews the state‐of‐the‐art scientific understanding of the beaver as the quintessential ecosystem engineer. This review has a European focus but examines key research considering both Castor fiber—the Eurasian beaver and Castor canadensis—its North American counterpart. In recent decades species reintroductions across Europe, concurrent with natural expansion of refugia populations has led to the return of C. fiber to much of its European range with recent reviews estimating that the C. fiber population in Europe numbers over 1.5 million individuals. As such, there is an increasing need for understanding of the impacts of beaver in intensively populated and managed, contemporary European landscapes. This review summarizes how beaver impact: (a) ecosystem structure and geomorphology, (b) hydrology and water resources, (c) water quality, (d) freshwater ecology, and (e) humans and society. It concludes by examining future considerations that may need to be resolved as beavers further expand in the northern hemisphere with an emphasis upon the ecosystem services that they can provide and the associated management that will be necessary to maximize the benefits and minimize conflicts. This article is categorized under:Water and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European beaver (Castor fiber L. 1758) is the biggest rodent living in Europe. It is a semi-aquatic animal known for building dams and burrows. European beaver is a potential host for a wide range of parasites and other infectious diseases. In Slovakia, there is an increasing number of beavers but the data about their parasitic fauna are missing. Our work is the first documentation about the beaver's parasitofauna in Slovakia. In a 1-year study, we collected and examined 19 beaver fecal samples from the vicinity of beaver burrows inhabiting three particular localities at the Danube, Topľa, and Laborec rivers in Slovakia. In these fecal samples, 4 different species of intestinal endoparasites were detected as follows: oocysts of Cryptosporidium, cysts of Giardia, eggs of Stichorchis subtriquetrus, and eggs and larvae of Travassosius rufus. Parasites were confirmed only in samples collected at river Topľa. Based on our results, we can conclude that European beaver can be an important source of parasitic contamination of surface waters especially in the localities shared by people.