Shawnee State Forest Land Snail Survey

In 2001 a grant from American Electric Power Service Corporation allowed us to conduct an intensive land snail survey of  nearly 3,000 hectares of the Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio. These samples are now being sorted and the taxa identified. This study compliments a similar survey conducted in reclaimed strip-mine land and give us an indication of differences between the snail faunas, what kind and how many snails recolonize the reclaimed land, etc.

The ~450 leaf-litter samples were marked with GPS and the data will be used with ArcView to show species ranges, areas of high diversity and numbers, etc.

Below is a sample illustrating the range of Cochlicopa morseana (red dots) in the study area (area enclosed by red line).

This study was published in:

Watters, G.T., Menker, T. & S.H. O'Dee. 2005. A comparison of terrestrial snail faunas between strip-mined land and relatively undisturbed land in Ohio, USA - an evaluation of recovery potential and changing faunal assemblages. Biological Conservation 126: 166-174.