The North American beaver is a keystone riparian obligate which creates and maintains riparian areas by building dams. Invasive shrubs are common in riparian zones in the eastern U.S., but it is not known if beavers promote or inhibit these invasions. In southwest Ohio, we investigated beaver preference for Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), a prevalent riparian invader, compared to other woody species. At each of eight sites, we identified woody stems greater than 2.5 cm diameter on two 120 × 2 m transects parallel to the water’s edge and six, 25 m secondary transects perpendicular to these, recording diameter, distance to the water’s edge, and whether cut by beaver. The roles of plant genus, diameter, and distance to water in determining which stems were cut by beaver were determined by binomial generalized regression. Beaver preference for each genus and each site was quantified with an electivity index, which utilizes the proportion of stems cut compared to available stems. Probability of stem cutting depended on genus, diameter, and distance; stems closer to water and with smaller diameter had a higher probability of being cut. Although L. maackii comprised 41% of cut stems, it was low preference for beaver at six of eight sites. Beaver electivity for L. maackii was negatively associated with the density of small diameter stems of preferred taxa (Salix, Ligustrum, Pyrus, Carya and Acer negundo). These findings indicate that beaver do not hinder L. maackii. Another non-native shrub, Elaeagnus umbellata, had high electivities, suggesting beavers may impede its invasion.

北美海狸是通过建造水坝来创建和维护河岸地区的基石河岸专责机构。入侵灌木丛在美国东部的河岸地区很常见，但尚不清楚海狸是否会促进或抑制这些入侵。在俄亥俄州西南部，我们调查了海狸对金银花（Lonicera maackii）的偏好），与其他木本物种相比，是一种主要的河岸入侵者。在八个地点的每一个处，我们在两个平行于水边的120×2 m断面和垂直于这些边的六个，25 m次要断面中识别出直径大于2.5 cm的木质茎，记录直径，距水边的距离以及是否被砍伐海狸。通过二项式广义回归确定植物属，直径和距水的距离在确定哪些茎被海狸切掉中的作用。海狸对每个属和每个位点的偏好都通过选择性指数进行了量化，该指数利用了茎梗与可用茎的比例。切茎的概率取决于属，直径和距离；茎靠近水且直径较小的茎被割掉的可能性更高。虽然L. maackii包括41％的切花茎，八个地点中有六个地点对海狸的偏爱较低。海狸为electivity L.忍冬呈负小直径的密度相关联的茎优选的类群（的柳，女贞子，梨，山核桃和糖槭）。这些发现表明，海狸不妨碍马氏乳杆菌。另一种非本地灌木Elaeagnus umbellata具有较高的选择性，表明海狸可能会阻止其入侵。