Belhiouani H, El-Hadef El-Okki M, Afri-Mehennaoui FZ, Sahli L. 2019. Terrestrial gastropod diversity, distribution and abundance in areas with and without anthropogenic disturbances. Biodiversitas 20: 243-249. The objective of this study was to establish an inventory of terrestrial gastropods from different sites in the northeast of Algeria. Several points were sampled from five various areas relatively affected by human activity. Areas prospected were an industrial area (El-Hadjar, Annaba), a mining area (Djebel Hamimat, Oum-El-Bouaghi), an urban area (B’kira, Constantine), a mountainous area (Ibn Ziad, Constantine) and a sub-mountainous area (Ibn Badis, Constantine). A total of 11 species and 2632 individual land snails belonging to six molluscan families (Helicidae, Hygromiidae, Sphincterochilidae, Achatinidae, Enidae, and Pomatiidae) and 10 genera were found in all habitats. The highest density was recorded in the mountainous area with 1270 individuals and 10 species, whereas the lowest value was recorded in the mining and the industrial areas with 3 and 4 species respectively. The malacofaunal diversity was also determined, Shannon’s index, Simpson’s index, and equitability index are higher in the mountainous zone of Ibn Ziad with 1.87, 0.82 and 0.78 respectively, and lower in the mining area of Djebel Hamimat, with 0.60, 0.33, and 0.54. The dispersion and density of species appear to be contingent upon several factors among which soil properties, height, climate conditions and certainly anthropogenic disturbance.

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The tree species differed by their capacity to capture air-borne dust and to allocate trace element from contaminated soil. The aim of this study was to explore the accumulation potential of heavy metals (HMs) by F. retusa L. and its possible use for air pollution biomonitoring in urban areas. Plant material was sampled along the national roads in Constantine city (NE-Algeria), characterized by an intense traffic load. The concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead and zinc were determined in the washed and unwashed leaves. The mean concentrations of HMs decrease in the following order: Zn > Pb > Cu > Cd for both studied leaves, and were about 0.68 and 0.98 µg/g for Cd, 7.26 and 8.74 µg/g for Cu, 20.35 and 37.61 µg/g for Pb and 63.33 µg/g and 75.94 µg/g for Zn, for washed/unwashed leaves respectively. The studied metal contents were significantly higher than those cited in the literature; this indicates the traffic road impact on HMs emissions and uptake by plants. Higher values of metal accumulation index (MAI) indicate the effectiveness of the studied species for monitoring air metallic pollution in urban areas, and its usefulness for phytoextraction of HMs from the polluted soils and/or air. Results of this study could be beneficial as preliminary reference values for HMs uptake by F. retusa in urban environments.