The heat and water budgets of a beaver pond

Abstract

Small water bodies create their own characteristic local meteorological en-vironments. The heat and water budgets will generally vary with sur-face area and water depth. If a small pond gradually becomes covered by vegetation, its meteorological conditions will change. On occasion, a vegetated area may change into a pond, complete with vegetation established in the water and extending above the surface. Such are beaver ponds and other flooded areas. The paper discusses the niain features of the development of beaver ponds and their heat and water budgets at different stages. The energy budget programme used was previously developed by the authors, but it has been modified to account for the different phases of the pond development. The effects of the various physical changes are evaluated by comparing the individual heat and water budget terms for different stages be-tween an open lake surface and a forest cover. The local heat budget will only be affected on a small scale by the establishment of a beaver pond, but the influence on the water budget has far-reaching consequences. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.