Summaries by Kathryn E. Perez, corrections/additions welcome.

Monitoring of Sensitive Mollusk Populations Following Low-intensity Wildfire in Old Growth Coniferous Forest. Nancy Duncan, Regional Interagency Mollusk Specialist, USDI Bureau of Land Management, Roseburg District Office, Or. 97470. nduncan"at"or.blm.gov

We monitored the survival of four species of terrestrial mollusks (Prophysaon coeruleum, Monadenia chaceana, Monadenia fidelis, and Helminthoglypta hertleini) following a natural wildfire in old growth Douglas fir forests in southwestern Oregon during the summer of 2002, in order to investigate the short-term effects of such disturbance events on local abundance and distribution and to gain insight into the dynamics of survival and recolonization following low and moderate intensity fires. Mollusk sites had been located prior to the fire event, during protocol surveys conducted in support of proposed timber sale projects. The same survey method was repeated in the two years immediately following the fire during this study. Each site was revisited at least twice to document abundance, habitat condition and mortality. Reference sites in unburned units were also sampled at the same time to determine bias due to weather, survey efficiency, or other effects not related to the fire. We found that these four mollusk species were negatively affected by the fire: both distribution and abundance were reduced. Only 10 of 26 original locations still contained live mollusks in burned units and the total number of live individuals detected in the burned units was reduced from 42 to 35. Seven new locations were discovered. There appeared to be differences in sensitivity between the taxa groups. Adult snails were most severely affected, with only one live adult individual located post-fire, while slugs were least affected but reduced from 24 occupied sites pre-fire to 15 sites post fire. Habitat features such as down wood, tree canopy cover and groundcover did not appear to be correlated with survival. Coarse rock substrate with deep fissures and access to underground moisture was present at most sites that had continued occupancy, suggesting that these features provide for deep vertical movement and shielding from heat during wildfires. The distribution of these features in the landscape may play an important role in maintaining long-term species distribution within a range. Get .pdf.

Kiss, L & F Magnin. 2003. The impact of fire on some mediterranean land snail communites and patterns of post-fire recolonization. Journal of Molluscan Studies 69:43-53. Analyzed immediate and long-term impact of fire on land snail communities. The authors found that land snails decreased in diversity and abundance, but functional groups were present 1 year post-fire. The composition of the post-fire land snail communities depends essentially on the habitat structure, and to a lesser degree, on the floristic composition and topography. There was no positive effect of unburned boundary areas on snail community recovery. Invasive, and "open-grass" species dominated post-fire.

Nekola, JC. 2002. Effects of fire management on the richness and abundance of central North American grassland land snail faunas. Animal biodiversity and conservation 25(2) 53-66.

Nekola, JC. 2003. Large-scale terrestrial gastopod community composition patterns in the Great Lakes region of North America. Diversity and Distributions 9:55-71. Get .pdf.

Nekola, JC & PS White. 2002. Conservation, the two pillars of ecological explanation, and the paradigm of distance. Natural Areas Journal 22:305-310.