Forest snail faunas from Transylvania (Romania) and their relationship to the faunas of Central and Northern Europe

Cameron, R. A.; Pokryszko, Beata M.; Horsák, Michal; Sîrbu, Ioan; Gheoca, Voichiţa

doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01730.x

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The modern distribution of this taxon's habitat is found in the area of the Northern, Northeastern Carpathian Mts ranging from the lower alpine woodlands of the foothills to the upper alpine woodlands to a height of ca. 1000 m [79][80][81][82][83][84]. Consequently, the studied region in the Bükk Mts, NE Hungary, between the elevations of 500-750 m ASL must have acted as an ice age refugia for woodland mollusk taxa [49][50][51][52][53][54][55]64].…”

Section: Ice Age Refugia In Hot-water Springs and Lakes: Lake Saintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice Age Terrestrial and Freshwater Gastropod Refugia in the Carpathian Basin, Central Europe

Sümegi¹,

Gulyás²,

Molnár³

et al. 2018

Biological Resources of Water

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Thanks to its unique microclimatic, geomorphological , hydrological conditions forming a mosaic-like environment present at all scales, numerous Late Tertiary and Pleistocene warmth-loving gastropod taxa managed to find refugee within the Carpathian Basin during the major-minor cold spells of the Ice Age. This complex system of refugia have been continuously functioning and evolving since the Late Tertiary through the entire Pleistocene and the Holocene. To understand the spatial and temporal evolution of refugia, detailed paleoecological investigations have been implemented, results of which are summed here. The high-grade fractal-like complexity of the environment led to the emergence of a so-called dual refugia, which is a unique feature of the Carpathian Basin. This temporally parallel but spatially differing presence of habitats for taxa of contrasting ecological needs was noted for paleotemperature gradients and temperate woodland and steppe habitat types as well. Furthermore, detailed geological and paleoecological analysis of a small Pleistocene hot-spring fed pond revealed information about the evolution of endemic thermophylous freshwater gastropod taxa within this microrefugia. This chapter is aimed to give an overview of the nature, evolution of temperate terrestrial and freshwater gastropod refugia present in the Carpathian Basin during the Ice Age.

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Section: Ice Age Refugia In Hot-water Springs and Lakes: Lake Saintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ice Age Terrestrial and Freshwater Gastropod Refugia in the Carpathian Basin, Central Europe

Sümegi¹,

Gulyás²,

Molnár³

et al. 2018

Biological Resources of Water

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“…There is additional evidence that these isolated forests have snail faunas dominated by post‐glacial immigrants. These forest faunas are not especially rich, with similar numbers of species per site to those in Georgia (Pokryszko et al ., ), and less than in the Romanian Carpathians (Cameron et al ., ), despite large numbers of individuals and the presence of rocky limestone in many sites, a sharp contrast to the Georgian sites sampled in both features. Both richness and similarity in composition relate to ecological variables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…The endemic species are all large; there are no local radiations of small species living in damp litter, as with Leiostyla in the Caucasus (Sysoev & Schileyko, ; Pokryszko et al ., ). Only two genera of Clausiliidae are present in our samples, one endemic, with a total of three species, contrasted with at least ten genera in the Romanian Carpathian forests and 11 in Georgian forests sampled in a similar manner (Cameron et al ., ; Pokryszko et al ., ); even more genera are present in the latter region (Sysoev & Schileyko, ). Similarly, these Crimean forests held only one (endemic) hygromiid; Carpathian forests typically hold four or five.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest snail faunas from Crimea (Ukraine), an isolated and incomplete Pleistocene refugium

Cameron

Pokryszko²,

Horsák

2013

Biol J Linn Soc Lond

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The land snail faunas of 26 forest sites and two open rocky sites in the Crimean Mountains were sampled in 2011. Of the 40 species found within the forests (about half the known fauna of Crimea as a whole), 28 were species with wide western Palaearctic distributions, and only eight were endemic to Crimea. While there were significant differences in the faunas of different sampling areas, these seemed to be a consequence of ecological differences among them rather than a product of geographical isolation and differentiation. Endemic species were large, and not entirely restricted to forest; known endemics not found in these forests are mainly typical of more open habitats. There is no local radiation of small species living in damp forest litter, as with Leiostyla species in the Transcaucasian forest refugium, and families such as the Clausiliidae with many endemic forest species in both Transcaucasia and the Carpathians are sparsely represented. The one endemic clausiliid genus, Mentissa, occurs in open as well as in wooded habitats. The present faunas are rather poor considering the soil conditions and climate, and the forests hold widespread species often associated with open habitats elsewhere. While there is evidence that these mountains provided a refuge for many animals and plants during glacial episodes further north, the forest snail fauna suggests that full forest cover did not survive throughout the Pleistocene. Rather, the present fauna contains endemics that survived in other habitats and widespread species with good powers of passive dispersal. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109, 424–433.

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“…An increase in endemism towards the southern and southeast European mountains is evident also for terrestrial molluscs (Cameron et al 2011). Hotspots of mollusc endemism are found in the Mediterranean and Alpine biogeographic regions, especially on limestone substrates.…”

Section: Macroscale Diversitymentioning

confidence: 85%

Fagus sylvatica forests and their faunal diversity: A regional and European perspective

et al. 2014

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Abstract. While the postglacial history of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and the plant species composition of beech forests in Central Europe are fairly well understood, the faunal biodiversity has been less well investigated. We studied three groups of mostly sedentary organisms in beech forest at regional and European scales by combining field studies with a compilation of existing literature and expert knowledge. Specifically, we examined the relationship between host tree genera and saproxylic beetles, and the diversity and composition of forest ground-dwelling molluscs and ground beetles in relation to the abundance of beech. At a West Central European scale (Germany), where beech has a "young" ecological and biogeographical history, we found 48 primeval forest relict species of saproxylic beetles associated with beech, 124 ground beetles and 91 molluscs inhabiting beech forest, yet none exclusive of West Central European beech forests. High levels of faunal similarity between beech and other woodland trees suggested that many of the beech forest dwelling species are euryoecious and likely to originate from mid-Holocene mixed broadleaf forests. Beech forests of the mountain ranges in Southern and East Central Europe, which are ecologically and biogeographically "old", were found to harbour distinct species assemblages, including higher contingents of saproxylic beetles and carabids in the Carpathians and narrow-range endemic gastropods of Carpathian broadleaf forest.The observed biodiversity patterns suggest differentiated conservation priorities in "young" and "old" European beech forest regions.

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Forest snail faunas from Transylvania (Romania) and their relationship to the faunas of Central and Northern Europe

Cited by 18 publications

References 20 publications

Ice Age Terrestrial and Freshwater Gastropod Refugia in the Carpathian Basin, Central Europe

Ice Age Terrestrial and Freshwater Gastropod Refugia in the Carpathian Basin, Central Europe

Forest snail faunas from Crimea (Ukraine), an isolated and incomplete Pleistocene refugium

Fagus sylvatica forests and their faunal diversity: A regional and European perspective

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