Australian land snails: a review of ecological research and conservation approaches

Abstract

Land snails are an important yet often neglected component of Australia's biological diversity. Despite high levels of diversity within this group and the identification of many narrow range endemic species as being of conservation concern, there have been few detailed studies that document the ecology and conservation requirements of the group. A range of threats has been suggested, yet relatively few have been rigorously assessed. Whilst factors such as land clearing are readily apparent and have resulted in extinctions, other threats such as climate change are not well understood. This paper reviews studies conducted on terrestrial molluscs in Australia and highlights the need for further targeted ecological research, given the likely level of on-going threats. We urge researchers to apply rigorous approaches to data collection that will enable a deeper understanding of the factors governing distribution and abundance. Approaches used in other areas of conservation biology offer considerable scope for application to land snails and for the development of appropriate conservation strategies.

Keywords:

• invertebrates
• conservation
• land snails
• ecology
• habitat
• threatened species
• recovery planning

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Michael Murphy, Dr Winston Ponder, and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments on the manuscript. Dr John Stanisic provided feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. Jonathan Parkyn is currently completing a PhD on the conservation and ecology of T. mitchellae and is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Commonwealth Government.