Slug Life: Effects of Forest Land Management on Terrestrial Mollusks

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.  They have just released this new literature review summarizing the effects of logging, road building and burning on snails and slugs, which was funded by the Forest Service/BLM Interagency Special Status and Sensitive Species Program.

Summary:
Snails and slugs are essential components of forest ecosystems. They decompose forest litter, recycle nutrients, build soils, and provide food and calcium for birds, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and invertebrates. Although mollusks have been a crucial part of the ecology of temperate forests for millennia, recent loss and fragmentation of natural habitats due to clearcut logging, road-building, and altered fire regime have resulted in both extinction and extinction risk for many mollusk species (e.g., Curry et al. 2008). Mollusks (including aquatic species) represent 20% of all threatened animals, and 37% of known animal extinctions since 1600 A.D. (Seddon 1998 in Dunk et al. 2004). In an era where the extinction rate is an estimated 400 times the natural rate (reviewed in Werner & Raffa 2000), it is important for land managers to take mollusks into consideration when developing or re-evaluating strategies for managing forests ecosystems to achieve forest health and biodiversity conservation goals.

Key findings of the review include:
•    While some level of exposure in the physical environment is tolerated by certain mollusks, most species are extremely sensitive to temperature and moisture extremes.
•    Research suggests that the majority of snails and slugs are dependent on litter from deciduous trees and have higher abundances in multispecies forests with strong broadleaf components. Additionally, mollusks in deciduous forests appear to rebound from disturbance more quickly than in coniferous forests.
•    Forests with old-growth characteristics supply microhabitat and microclimate conditions capable of supporting a diversity of mollusks, and forest age is often positively correlated with mollusk richness and abundance.
•    Numerous studies stress the importance of refugia in gastropod recolonization potential and community resilience following forest disturbance. Since land mollusks are small animals with limited mobility and dispersal capabilities, the maintenance of refugia in disturbed habitat is particularly important for this group. Refugia should include logs, snags, fallen branches, and other forms of coarse woody debris, as well as areas with thick leaf-litter. Woody debris and litter provide islands of habitat, food, and protection from microclimatic extremes, increasing species’ tolerance of temporarily inhospitable environments.
•    Research suggests that in order to reduce microclimate extremes and protect gastropods, partial cuts should be favored over clearcuts, aggregated (group) retention over dispersed retention or thinning, and larger group retention over smaller group retention. In particular, harvesting with large group retention helps to maintain pre-harvest boreal gastropod assemblages and will likely conserve boreal gastropod species if used as a tool for biodiversity management.
•    Fragmented habitat limits the dispersal and post-disturbance recolonization potential of gastropods. Tracts of intact forest and connected groups of old trees help provide dispersal corridors for gastropods and can lead to significant increases in the survival of disturbance-sensitive species.
•    Research suggests that techniques that minimize soil compaction and damage to (or removal of) the organic layer favor survival of gastropods. For example, Timberjacks have been found to cause less damage to the organic mat and resident invertebrate populations than feller bunchers, single-grip harvesters, and grapple skidders.
•    Due to the tendency of mollusks to avoid non-vegetated and/or dry environments, even narrow, unpaved roads with low traffic densities are barriers to the dispersal of mollusks.
•    Numerous studies have found negative and long-lasting responses of gastropods to fire, including population extirpation and reductions in abundance and species richness. Small burns surrounded by unburned plots have been most successful at maintaining gastropod community structure. Although there is little information comparing gastropod responses to differences in burn severity and frequency, it is presumed that a fire regime involving low-intensity burns at infrequent fire-return intervals (>5 years) would best maintain gastropod communities.

Download the entire literature review here.

4 thoughts on “Slug Life: Effects of Forest Land Management on Terrestrial Mollusks”

  1. Mollusk are among the “uncharismatic microfauna” and with surprisingly high biomass and biodiversity they provide essential ecological functions.

    This statement gives us food for thought, especially with respect to biomass utilization.

    “Since land mollusks are small animals with limited mobility and dispersal capabilities, the maintenance of refugia in disturbed habitat is particularly important for this group. Refugia should include logs, snags, fallen branches, and other forms of coarse woody debris, as well as areas with thick leaf-litter. Woody debris and litter provide islands of habitat, food, and protection from microclimatic extremes, increasing species’ tolerance of temporarily inhospitable environments.”

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  2. Tree- seems like if it would give us food for thought for removing some of the biomass with mechanical treatments, it should make us also question the impacts of intense fires on mollusk habitat (thick leaf litter).

    In a brief scan of this paper, I found this paragraph:

    Realized and potential impact of logging on snails
    As a group, forest snails depend on various forest attributes that are frequently associated with old growth or intact forests, including shadiness and humidity, a stable microclimate, adequate calcium content, diverse vegetation, a sufficient amount of litter and coarse woody debris, and habitat continuity (Müller et al. 2005). These habitat dependences, coupled with limited mobility with which to escape unfavorable conditions, suggest that silviculture activities and associated microhabitat changes would negatively impact snails and slugs at logged locations.

    Suggests that they are talking mostly about west side wet forests

    The idea of “”old growth” or “intact” ” is certainly a west-sidey concept. would fire de-intactify a forest?

    So I looked up the Xerces Society mission here:

    The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. Established in 1971, the Society is at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.

    Butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, worms, starfish, mussels, and crabs are but a few of the millions of invertebrates at the heart of a healthy environment. Invertebrates build the stunning coral reefs of our oceans; they are essential to the reproduction of most flowering plants, including many fruits, vegetables, and nuts; and they are food for birds, fish, and other animals. Yet invertebrate populations are often imperiled by human activities and rarely accounted for in mainstream conservation.

    The Society uses advocacy, education, and applied research to defend invertebrates.

    I’m not sure that I would trust the “scientific information” from an organization who “uses research” to “defend invertebrates.”

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  3. And I’m not sure I would trust “scientific information” from an organization (USFS) who “uses research” to cut down most of the old growth and build 440,000 miles of roads and spread weeds from here to kingdom come. So what’s your point really Sharon?

    And Sharon, the description you’ve pulled out (it appears just in a attempt to discredit the findings of the study) also could be used to talk about many of the public forestlands in the upper Great Lakes, Eastern US and Southern US. In fact, it could be talking about portions of the Kootenai or the Lolo or the Panhandle as well. Perhaps the only part of the country not fitting that description would be portions of the interior west.

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