INVESTIGADORES
PIZA Julia
artículos
Título:
Conservation of land snails in the mountain grasslands of the Argeninian pampas
Autor/es:
DELHEY VALDEMAR K.; BURELA SILVANA; PIZÁ JULIA; GHEZZI NATALIA S; CAZZANIGA NÉSTOR J.
Revista:
Tentacle
Editorial:
IUCN/SSC Mollusc Specialist Group
Referencias:
Año: 2005 vol. 13 p. 11 - 13
ISSN:
0958-5079
Resumen:
We performed a land snail and earthworm
conservation project in this area, funded by the BP Conservation Programme
2002. Regarding land snails, the aim of our project was to investigate the
distribution, habitat requirements and potentially threatening factors on land
snail populations in the only reserve that protects this unique mountains: the
Ernesto Tornquist Provincial Park (ETPP). This reserve is cause of
conservation concern due to the biological invasions of feral horses and exotic
woody plants, especially pines, which could be also posing a threat to land
snail populations.
The
qualitative type of response to environmetal variables was similar for the
different snail species, and they commonly co-occurred. Snails preferred a balanced relative covers of
rocks and vegetation. Plots without rocks were rejected, with a remarkable
exception in summits, where we observed the highest densities of D. aguirrei
(60 snails/10 m2) under the dense cover of stems of the endemic
tiny shrub Grindelia ventanensis, in an area without rocks. We also
observed the highest densities of P. patagonicus in summits (112 snails/
10 m2), but in a plot with rocks and the shrub G. ventanensis.
Resting sites differed among species. Austroborus lutescens dorbignyi is
a burrowing species, never found attached to rocks. Narrow fissures among rock
layers were used by V. avellanedae and D. aguirrei.