Background
It’s a tough age for global biodiversity, and the scientific community can barely keep up with the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats worldwide. Ecosystem continuity is a term describing how untouched a natural habitat is by human land use, and forests with long continuity are known to hold some of Earth’s greatest biodiversity! It is thus more important than ever that we investigate even the most cryptic and overlooked creatures.
Land snails are excellent indicators of ecosystem continuity, and in this case: forest continuity. They are tiny, slow, and many of them tend to spend generation after generation in very limited areas. Their dispersal capabilities are generally lacking because they have adapted to survive in stable habitats and environmental conditions that have remained undisturbed for a long time. Because of their sensitive nature, great species diversity of land snails can point towards habitat with long forest continuity!
Land snails are also the single group of animals, or living organisms overall, that have sustained the most extinctions globally according to the latest IUCN red list. We are losing the most sensitive species at an alarming rate, and it is vital that we understand what factors affect their diversity in an age where we are losing millions of years of evolutionary history forever in all branches of life.
Aims
- What habitat factors affect land snail species richness and species composition?
- Do ecosystem continuity, disturbances or anthropocentric effects play a role in determining species occurrence and composition?