Project 2017: CAN SNAILS FLY IN THE SKY?: TESTING HYPOTHESIS OF LONG DISTANCE DISPERSAL OF SNAILS BY MIGRANT BIRDS
Summary: It is reasonable that snails migrate with birds, however, it is unclear whether they can migrate for long distance or not. The
geographical specialty of Svalbard provides wonderful opportunity to test the hypothesis "snails can fly in the sky", because the history of
ecosystem on Svalbard is very short. In this study, we try the first exhaustive survey of land and freshwater snails on Svalbard. After that, we try
to define the original populations of land and freshwater snails on Svalbard with the comparison of DNA sequences between Svalbard and the
snail populations on wintering places for migrant birds. The DNA sequences of snails on Svalbard should be same from original populations. |
