Meeting Abstract
Long-term changes due to succession and climate change were assessed for the molluscan fauna in a re-established forest ecosystem. The Fitch Natural History Reservation located in Douglas County, Kansas was founded in 1948. Prior to the foundation of the reserve, the non-forested areas were heavily cultivated or grazed. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, many surveys of molluscan fauna were completed. It has since been allowed to undergo natural succession, returning to a primarily forested ecosystem. In some areas of the reserve, succession has caused a rapid increase foliage resulting in a dense underbrush over the last 10+ years. These surveys have provided a species list by location along with information on the local ecology at the time. To see how succession has changed the fauna at the University of Kansas Fitch Natural History Reservation, we have sampled four sites (three terrestrial and one aquatic) with periodic collections spanning 2004-2017. Species composition and diversity was then compared with the historic data. These results allow us to see how the molluscan fauna has responded to succession and climate change on this reservation over the last 50+ years. We are able to document changes in the species composition from the original surveys.
