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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.