SNAILS - Support and Naturalization in Areas of Importance for Land Snails

Informations

Funding country

Portugal

Acronym

SNAILS

URL

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/life/publicWebsite/project/details/5737

Start date

1/1/2022

End date

12/31/2026

Budget

1,994,078 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

This project targets three mollusc species endemic to Santa Maria Island, in the Azores Archipelago (Portugal), namely: Plutonia angulosa, Oxychilus agostinhoi, and Leptaxis minor . The first two are assessed as Critically Endangered and the third one as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. These species have distinct though overlapping geographical distributions, and face similar threats. All are very dependent on improvements in habitat availability and quality - especially native woods and shrubland, with their underlying bryophytes and ferns. However, these habitats are also under threat due to declining areas and fragmentation (caused by land use change, especially through conversion to commercial forests and agriculture, and increased pressure for conversion to pasture land); quality loss due to Invasive Alien Species (IAS) (especially Hedychium gardnerianum and Pittosporum undulatum, which critically occupy key overlapping areas for distribution of the three species, over about 27 ha). Changes in adequate micro-climatic conditions induced by loss of shadowing conditions and, more recently, climate change effects (especially an increase in drought frequency and duration).are adding further pressure on these species.