How does a rodent felling saplings across a headwater stream raise a valley’s water table by a metre or more and store measurably more carbon in the wet sediment behind its dams than the trees it cut down?

A single beaver felling saplings across a headwater stream can lift the local water table by more than a metre and turn the wet sediment behind its dams into a carbon sink that outweighs the trees it cut down. The mechanism is hydraulics, chemistry, and a rodent that will not stop chewing. The post How does a rodent felling saplings across a headwater stream raise a valley’s water table by a metre…