Download CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE Western Illinois University Undergraduate Research Day 2016

CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2016
PosterPresentation
HabitatAssociationsofWoodlandGastropodsinWest-CentralIllinois
TylerGebel
Mentors:KennethMcCravyandSeanJenkins
Biology
The existence of terrestrial gastropods (snails and slugs) in various woodland habitats is essential to
decompositionandnutrientcycling.Therearemanydifferentspeciesofterrestrialgastropodsinwestcentral Illinois and they all have certain basic necessities in the environments they inhabit. A study of
gastropodhabitatassociationsanddiversityisbeingconductedattheAliceL.KibbeLifeScienceStation
in Hancock County, west-central Illinois, between May of 2013 and August of 2016. Fifteen sites are
beingused,representingfivedifferentforesthabitattypes.Theseare:(1)xericpostoakforest,(2)mesic
whiteoakforest,(3)earlysuccessionalforestdominatedbyblacklocus(Robiniapseudoacacia),(4)sugar
maple (Acer saccharum) forest with a riparian terrace, and (5) a xeric post oak barrens forest with
shallowsoilsoverlimestonebedrock.Twofiftymetertransectswereestablishedineachhabitattype,
withleaflittersampledusing1m2quadratseverytenmeters.Theleaflitteristhensiftedandthesnails
aresortedout,separatedbysize,andidentified.Totalgastropodabundance,speciesrichness,species
diversity,andspeciescompositionwillallbecomparedamonghabitattypes,usingone-wayanalysisof
variance, the Simpson diversity index, indicator species analysis, and the multi-response permutation
procedure.