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Bellwether of the Canaries: Anthropogenic Influence on the Land Snail Community of the Canary Islands

Wall, Alexander F
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin147947618085079

Abstract Details

2016, MS, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Geology.
In many parts of the world, human activities are now commensurate with natural environmental factors in governing the distributions and abundances of species. Natural areas near human-modified landscapes experience pollution, fragmentation, water diversion, introduced species, and other factors that may affect local biodiversity. The land snails of the Canary Islands provide excellent opportunities to diagnose the importance of anthropogenic agents in mediating the diversity and distribution of species. Land snails are particularly sensitive to disturbance and are an integral part of terrestrial ecosystems. This study analyzed the distributions and abundances of land snail subfossils at 60 localities throughout the Canary Islands coastal scrub biome. This was accomplished using data on natural and anthropogenic variables to assess their relative importance in governing land-snail diversity. A total of 34,801 dead shells represent a diverse malacofauna with highly localized endemism. A novel combination of analytical methods was able to distinguish the impact of anthropogenic factors on native land-snail diversity at the biome scale. Regression tree analyses indicated that diversity decreased with increased proximity to agricultural sites and airports — the latter taken as a proxy for heavily urbanized areas. Sites varied in biodiversity, e.g. from an average of 3.6 species in sites nearest human-modified areas, to an average of 6.9 species in the most remote sites. Impacts from modified areas affected natural areas at distances from ~8 km to less than 0.1 km away. Protected coastal scrub areas near human-modified landscapes may not, therefore, be effectively protecting some members of their constituent communities.
Arnold Miller, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Yurena Yanes, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Joshua Miller, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
67 p.
Paleontology
land snail; Canary Islands; conservation; subfossil

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wall, A. F. (2016). Bellwether of the Canaries: Anthropogenic Influence on the Land Snail Community of the Canary Islands [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin147947618085079

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wall, Alexander. Bellwether of the Canaries: Anthropogenic Influence on the Land Snail Community of the Canary Islands. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin147947618085079.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wall, Alexander. "Bellwether of the Canaries: Anthropogenic Influence on the Land Snail Community of the Canary Islands." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin147947618085079

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin147947618085079
684
© 2016, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Bellwether of the Canaries: Anthropogenic Influence on the Land Snail Community of the Canary Islands by Alexander F Wall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.