World Congress of Malacology Antwerp ... - Unitas Malacologica

Opportunities to acquire important collections can appear suddenly, allowing limited time for
detailed planning. The plan can thus be a mirror image of that for an expedition, with the material
arriving first and curation starting after an assessment of the contents. The strategic commitment is
the same, however, with curation taking place over multiple years.
In some countries increasing regulation is restricting the field collecting of material for study,
especially for scientists from outside. Habitat destruction and climate change are among other factors
that will act to increase the scientific value of well-preserved private collections.
Land snail faunas in Polish forests: history, geography and ecology
Cameron, Robert A.D. 1 ; Pokryszko, Beata M. 2 ; Horsak, Michal 3
1. Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2DL, UK,
Email: radc@blueyonder.co.uk
2. Museum of Natural History, Wrocław University, Sienkiewicza 21, 50-335 Wrocław, Poland,
Email: bepok@biol.uni.wroc.pl
3. Dept. of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, CZ-611 37 Brno, Czech Republic,
Email: horsak@sci.muni.cz
A preliminary analysis of 136 standard samples of land snails from Polish and Ukrainian forests
shows that they can be split into 8 regional faunas on the basis of a DCA analysis. Mean levels of
alpha diversity differ only slightly between regions, with montane and limestone faunas being
marginally richer than those in the N. European Plain. In these faunas, ecological differences (beta
diversity) between forest sites are generally of less significance than geographical distances (gamma
diversity). Faunas in the lowlands are all very similar, and relate most closely to those of the Sudetes
(SW Poland), even far to the east. Ukrainian faunas are the most distinct, and are the only ones south
of the Carpathian watershed. Turnover of species north of the watershed is more gradual. Small
species (max shell dimension < 5 mm) are generally less geographically restricted than larger ones.
These results are discussed in relation to earlier work on the N. European fauna, taking account of the
effect of human disturbance, and to work on faunas from regions less affected by Pleistocene climate
changes.
Molecular and morphological taxonomy of gastropods from south-east Pacific seamounts
Castelin, Magalie 1, 2 ; Samadi, Sarah 1 ; Boisselier, Marie-Catherine 1 ; Lozouet, Pierre 2
1. MNHN, 43 rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France,
Email: magcastelin@mnhn.fr; dubayle@mnhn.fr; sarah@mnhn.fr
2. MNHN, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France,
Email: pbouchet@mnhn.fr
Previous studies have suggested that the high diversity associated with the Norfolk seamounts
(Southwest Pacific) could reflect endemism resulting from limited dispersal due to hydrological
phenomena. However in the case of the seamount benthic fauna, the extent of biodiversity is not well
established and taxonomy remains poorly know. Majority of studies draw up list of morpho-species
without concluding about the names. Moreover most studies concern very restricted area what does
not enable to conclude about endemism. Thus the knowledge about diversity of the deep sea fauna is
limited by taxonomy. The generalized use of molecular alpha-taxonomy data using the mitochondrial
gene (COI) has proposed for the barcode of life project consortium should accelerate the acquisition
of new taxonomic data.
To evaluate whether the seamounts constitute patches of isolated habitat and to measure the potential
role of larval dispersal on population structure, we explore the pattern of genetic diversity within two
genera of gastropods which differ in their larval development. These were Sassia, which has a
planctotrophic protoconch, suggesting high larvae dispersal abilities, and Nassaria, whose
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