Meeting Abstract
The Fitch Natural History Reservation was founded in 1948 and is located in Douglas County, Kansas. Prior to the foundation of the reserve, the non-forested areas were heavily cultivated or grazed. Since the late 1940s, the reserve has been allowed to undergo natural succession, returning to a primarily forested ecosystem. In some areas of the reserve, succession has caused a rapid increase in foliage, resulting in a dense underbrush. Molluscan surveys were conducted in the late 1940s through the 1950s, which often included a species list, specific locality information within the reserve, and information on the vegetation growth at the time. We have periodic molluscan collections at three terrestrial sites and one aquatic site from 2004 through 2017. By comparing the more recent collections with the older data, we demonstrate how the molluscan fauna has responded to succession on this reservation over the last 50 years. We have found almost all species documented in the original surveys while conducting our own surveys. We have found an increase in the forest species found at the Reservation as well as a decrease in the grassland species, providing evidence that the molluscan fauna change with the vegetation.
