Meeting Abstract
Tallgrass prairies are plant and animal communities which once covered much of the United States. Anderson County Prairies (1450 acres) are located near Welda, KS; have very deep soils and higher rainfall than other prairies found further west in the state. The goal for this preserve is to maintain and enhance native biodiversity within an imperiled tallgrass prairie ecosystem. It has populations of the threatened plant, Mead’s Milkweed and is owned by the Nature Conservancy. Here we present results of our periodic surveys since 2004 at Anderson County Prairies. These preserves consist of native tallgrass prairie with some plots which have been and are currently used for cattle pasture. We have found differences in gastropod diversity by land use with higher counts and different species at the non-pastured versus the pastured land. We combined soil analyses with the gastropod data to determine the source of these patterns.
