1. Land managers are increasingly using beavers to restore hydrological function, provide wildlife habitat, and mitigate the effects of climate extremes on water balances and ecosystems. Although North American beavers (Castor canadensis) and Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) both hold great potential for landscape‐scale benefits, more information about the interactions between beavers and wildlife is necessary to maximise the ecological benefits and minimise the social and ecological costs of beaver‐centred management. Beaver dams create large, deep pools with long hydroperiods, which could benefit aquatic and semi‐aquatic species, especially pond‐breeding amphibians, which breed in still and slow‐moving water.
2. We studied the relationship between beaver dams and pond‐breeding amphibians in the southern Washington Cascade Range of the north‐west U.S.A. by surveying 29 beaver‐dammed and 20 undammed lentic sites in three mid‐elevation (560–1,010 m) spatial blocks.
3. We found that mean amphibian species richness was 2.7 times higher in dammed sites than in undammed sites (2.4 vs. 0.9 species). This increase in species richness was driven by increased occupancy of slow‐developing species—red‐legged frogs (Rana aurora) and northwestern salamanders (Ambystoma gracile)—which were also more abundant at sites with dams. These two species were detected almost exclusively in beaver‐dammed sites, suggesting that some amphibians rely heavily on beaver‐dammed sites for successful reproduction in areas such as our study blocks where ponds and wetlands with long hydroperiods are otherwise scarce. Species with highly variable development periods—long‐toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum) and rough‐skinned newts (Taricha granulosa)—showed nonsignificant trends of higher site occupancy and, in the case of newts, higher number of mating events per hectare in dammed sites compared to undammed sites.
4. Compared to undammed sites, dammed ponds were consistently deeper and had longer hydroperiods, consistent with beavers benefitting slow‐developing amphibians primarily by increasing the quality of lentic breeding habitat. We suggest that slow‐developing amphibians and some variable‐rate developers might benefit greatly from beaver restoration, especially in areas where climate change is predicted to reduce summertime water levels. Beavers could therefore be useful and important components of ecosystem‐based restoration, management, and climate adaption, especially in parts of their native ranges in North America or Eurasia predicted to undergo climatic drying.

中文翻译：

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海狸水坝通过延长水文周期和增加对缓慢发育物种的代表性而增强了两栖动物多样性

1. 土地管理人员越来越多地使用海狸来恢复水文功能，提供野生动植物栖息地并减轻极端气候对水平衡和生态系统的影响。尽管北美海狸（Castor canadensis）和欧亚海狸（Castor fibre）都具有巨大的景观规模效益，但仍需要更多有关海狸与野生动物之间相互作用的信息，以最大程度地提高海狸的生态效益并降低其社会和生态成本集中管理。海狸水坝会形成大型的深水塘，并带有较长的水文期，这可能有益于水生和半水生物种，尤其是池塘繁殖的两栖动物，它们在静止和缓慢运动的水中繁殖。
2. 我们通过在三个中海拔（560-1,010 m）空间区块中调查了29个海狸坝和20个未筑坝的透镜体站点，研究了美国西北华盛顿南部喀斯喀特山脉海狸坝与池塘繁殖两栖动物之间的关系。
3. 我们发现，在有水坝的站点中，两栖动物的平均物种丰富度比没有水坝的站点高2.7倍（2.4对0.9种）。物种丰富性的增加是由缓慢发展的物种（红脚蛙（Rana aurora）和西北sal（Ambystoma gracile））的占有率增加所致，这些物种在有水坝的地方也更为丰富。这两个物种几乎都是在海狸被挡住的地方发现的，这表明某些两栖动物严重依赖海狸被挡住的地方来成功繁殖，例如我们的研究街区，那里的池塘和长水周期的湿地稀少。发育时期高度可变的物种-长趾sal（Ambystoma macrodactylum）和粗皮new（Taricha granulosa（塔里卡（Taricha granulosa））-显示较高的占地趋势，但对于new而言，与未阻塞的地点相比，有障碍的土地每公顷交配事件数量更多。
4. 与未筑坝的地点相比，筑坝的池塘始终更深，水文周期更长，这与海狸主要通过提高透镜体繁殖栖息地的质量而使缓慢发展的两栖动物受益有关。我们建议，发展缓慢的两栖动物和一些可变利率的开发者可能会从海狸恢复中受益匪浅，尤其是在预计气候变化会降低夏季水位的地区。因此，海狸可能是基于生态系统的恢复，管理和气候适应的有用且重要的组成部分，尤其是在北美或预计会遭受气候干燥的欧亚大陆的部分原生地区。