Preliminary study of land snails in San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Abstract

About 120 endemic species of endemic terrestrial snails have been recorded in the Galapagos Islands. Snails have colonized all the large islands and can be found in most vegetated areas. However, their distribution ranges are diminishing and some species are disappearing due to human impacts. We carried out a preliminary, non-invasive, evaluation of the effects of land use change on the diversity of snails in San Cristóbal Island. We surveyed four habitats in the island: a coffee plantation, a guava and pasture plantation, an urban area and an area reforested with native plants. We analyzed the diversity of snails in each habitat identifying the species with photographs. We identified three native and two introduced species; additionally, three species (or groups of species) were identified to the genus level. The greatest diversity of snails was found in the reforested area. This result suggests that the presence of native plants is important for the conservation of snails. Future research should focus on understanding the impact of introduced snail species on the native snail populations as well as on the dynamics of the ecosystems. This study was carried out with the research permit of PC-30-11 of the Parque Nacional Galápagos to Stella de la Torre.

Keywords

• Cambios en el uso de suelo
• diversidad
• caracoles
• especies introducidas
• Islas Galápagos