Freshwater Gastropod Pests

As this year's president of the AMS, I've become involved with a USDA initiative to identify mollusks (of all sorts) that have the potential to become pests*. Although most of the critters falling into this category are land snails and slugs, occasionally freshwater gastropods receive some attention.

The following news item was called to my attention by Jim Smith, a scientist at in the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service whom I've recently had the pleasure to work with. It comes from a web site that's new to me - NAPPO, the North American Plant Protection Organization. http://www.pestalert.org/pestnews.cfm

Subject: Mollusk from New Zealand expands range in US
Date posted: 04/23/02
Source: US Geological Survey

The New Zealand mudsnail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, first recorded from North America in Idaho's Snake River watershed in 1987, has added Arizona to its US distribution. Through the 1990's, the mudsnail spread to the waters of Montana, Wyoming, and California, including public lands such as Yellowstone National Park. In the eastern US, P. antipodarum is found in Lake Ontario, where a population was discovered in 1991. While widely distributed through Australia, Asia, and Europe, this species, as it name suggests, is native to freshwater lakes and streams of New Zealand. The snail is capable of rapid population growth, reproducing parthenogenically,and in Yellowstone, localized infestations can reach a density of 28,000 individuals per square foot. In the United Kingdom, P. antipodarum is reported to eat watercress; however, the main concern in the US is that the mudsnail will out compete algae-feeding aquatic insects, the main food source of trout.

The NAPPO web site also has a nice write-up on Pomacea canaliculata in the "Pest Alert" section, with a 14-page data sheet. Go to their website and submit "Mollusks" on the Pest Alert page, if you're curious.

We're anticipating several talks on the subject of molluscan pests at the Charleston meeting this August, including contributions by Jim Smith and by Rob Cowie, the chair of the AMS Committee spearheading this effort. Registration for that meeting will continue until June 30.


*Historical Note:
This paper was ultimately published in 2009:
Cowie, R. H., R. T. Dillon, D. G. Robinson and J. W. Smith (2009) Alien non-marine snails and slugs of priority quarantine importance in the United States: A preliminary risk assessment. American Malacological Bulletin. 27: 113-132. [PDF]

Charleston Symposium

To the FWGNA group,

The Charleston meeting is shaping up very nicely. Here's the current list of participants in our featured symposium, "The Biology and Conservation of Freshwater Gastropods." Their titles are, in many cases, tentative:

• John Alderman - Evolution of aquatic habitat conservation in North Carolina.
• Art Bogan and M. Raley - The conservation status of the Magnificent Ramshorn (Planorbella magnifica).
• Ken Brown - A general review of the conservation status of North American freshwater gastropods.
• Matthias Glaubrecht - Leopold von Buch's legacy: Treating species as dynamic natural entities, or Why geography matters.
• Rob Guralnick - Tying together bioinformatics and molecular approaches to discover conservation units.
• Paul Johnson - TBA.
• Steve Johnson - Spatial patterns of genetic structure, armature and coloration in Mexipyrgus churinceanus.
• Eileen Jokinen - TBA.
• Chuck Lydeard - The Phylogenetic Species Concept and its application in the conservation of freshwater mollusks.
• Bob McMahon - TBA.
• Elizabeth Milhalcik & Fred Thompson - The "Elimia" curvicostata species complex.
• Doug Shelton - The Freshwater Gastropods of Mississippi: Pioneer Survey Efforts in the 21st Century.
• Tim Stewart - Distribution and status of the freshwater gastropods of Virginia.
• Jon Todd - Species diversity assessment, sediment impact and point endemism: Problems in conservation assessment for highly speciose rift-lake endemics.
• Amy Wethington - Conservation issues in the Physa gyrina group.

And as if this weren't enough, that hard-working Amy Wethington has organized a special session entitled "Pulmonate Gastropods In The Laboratory" promising to provide a lot of additional insight into the biology of our favorite group!

• Susan Bandoni - TBA.
• Ken Brown - What can radio-isotope methods tell us about grazing in Physa?
• Thom DeWitt and Brian Langerhans - I. Overgeneralized cues induce maladaptive phenotypic plasticity in a pulmonate snail. Also II. Multivariate selection and emergent impacts of multiple predators in a freshwater snail-fish-crayfish system.
• Vasiliki Flari - Reproductive endocrinology of terrestrial pulmonates, mainly Deroceras reticulatum, Arion subfuscus, & Helix aspersa.
• Tom McCarthy - TBA
• Tom Smith & Rob Dillon - "Social facilitation" accelerates self-fertilization in Physa.
• Andy Turner - Nonlethal effects of predators on behavior and growth of Physa integra: comparing mesocosm and field experiments.
• Amy Wethington - Divergence and reproductive isolation in physids among populations of the gyrina group.

Many additional talks and posters dealing with diverse aspects of freshwater snail biology will be contributed. You won't want to miss this meeting! The deadline for early registration (and paper/poster submission) is May 15. Go to the website: http://dillonr.people.cofc.edu/AMS2002.htm

See you here!
Rob

Do the Charleston?

To the FWGNA group,

Please accept my invitation to attend the 68th annual meeting of the American Malacological Society here in Charleston, August 3 - 7, 2002. See the website:
http://www.fwgna.org/dillonr/AMS2002.htm

Our featured symposium will be "The Biology and Conservation of Freshwater Gastropods." I've lassoed a galaxy of malacological stars to make presentations, and the entire FWGNA group will get together to formulate project strategy for the future.

There will, of course, be the usual contributed paper and poster sessions, evening programs, an endowment auction, and a dinner cruise on Charleston Harbor. Field trips will be available for every taste, featuring historic tours, a fossil trip, and a boat trip to pristine Bull Island.

Housing will be available at modest cost in dormitory facilities at the College of Charleston. Lodging is also available at the Westin Francis Marion Hotel, located adjacent to the meeting facilities.

This afternoon I've placed brochures in the snail-mail to those of you for whom I have addresses. Registration materials and a call for papers should go out in February or March. But mark your calendars today! And I'll see you in Charleston next summer.

Season's Greetings,
Rob

FWGNA Edcomm

To the FWGNA group,

I am pleased to report that Dr. Rob Guralnick has agreed to join the Editorial Committee for our project. He succeeds Bob Hershler, who resigned as the Pacific regional coordinator last month, citing other commitments.

Rob is a 1999 Ph.D. from Dave Lindberg's lab at Berkeley. He is so skilled, both with molecules and with computers, that he went straight from grad school to win Shi-Kuei Wu's old post at the University of Colorado Museum.

It occurs to me that quite a few of you have joined this list since the EdComm was established 8/99, and may not know who these folks are or what they do. The EdComm is a group of eight malacologists, organized regionally, who provide oversight and guidance to the FWGNA project. They served as "Principal Investigators" for the NSF proposals we submitted in 1999 and 2000, and will edit the final products (both print and electronic) when we get to that stage (still quite a few years down the road.) Names and contact info follow:

• Steve Ahlstedt - Eastern Mississippi. USGS Knoxville, ahlstedt@usgs.gov
• Ken Brown - Western Mississippi. Louisiana State University, kmbrown@lsu.edu
• Rob Dillon - Southern Atlantic. College of Charleston, dillonr@cofc.edu
• Rob Guralnick - Pacific. University of Colorado, guralnic@spot.colorado.edu
• Paul Johnson - Eastern Gulf. Southeast Aquatic Research Institute, pdj@sari.org
• Eileen Jokinen - Great Lakes. Sault Ste. Marie, ejokinen@sault.com
• Bob McMahon - Western Gulf. U. Texas Arlington, r.mcmahon@uta.edu
• Dave Strayer - Northern Atlantic. Inst. Ecosystem Studies, strayerd@ecostudies.org

Rob Guralnick brings a lot of strengths to a project already quite obviously bulging with scientific talent. Join me in welcoming him to the Edcomm.

And keep in touch!
Rob

Report From Vienna

To the FWGNA group:

The American Malacological Society met with Unitas Malacologia in Vienna, Austria, August 19 - 25 in what might fairly be counted as the second "World Congress of Malacology." The following is a brief recap, from the special standpoint of the Freshwater Gastropods of North America project.

I understand that The Congress attracted somewhere around 400 - 500 registrants, and that a roughly equivalent number of papers and posters were presented. The North American turnout was a bit light (perhaps only 70 - 80) almost certainly due to the lateness of the season - school starts in late August for many of us on this side of the Atlantic. But I enjoyed meeting the host of workers from South America, Asia, and Africa, whom one would ordinarily not encounter at functions in the USA.

The five symposia organized for this meeting included one that will be of particular interest to the members of our group. Ian Killeen (Felixtowe, UK) and Mary Seddon (National Museum of Wales) organized a session entitled "Molluscan Conservation & Biodiversity" that included a keynote address, seven 20-minute symposium presentations, and twenty 15-minute "satellite" talks distributed over three days.

The keynote was offered by Mr. Tony Whitten, Senior Biodiversity Specialist for the World Bank, who asked rhetorically, "Malacologists: What are your priorities?" His premises were that (1) there is a global biodiversity crisis, and that (2) there has never been more money available for biodiversity conservation from governments, foundations, conservation NGOs, multi-lateral agencies, and even the private sector. He then asked, "Where is the Snail Defense League? Where are the expeditions to undercollected areas? Where is the development of human resources in the malacologically-richest countries? Where are the coordinated efforts to get funds?" The implication seemed to be that we malacologists are all too busy making phylogenetic trees to notice that those little bags of character states or DNA we're trying to classifying are disappearing before our eyes.

Mr. Whitten's remarks were good-natured, and sweetened with lots of humor, and I don't think anybody in the room took offense. He does have a point. However, I take this opportunity to call Mr. Whitten's attention to the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society: http://ellipse.inhs.uiuc.edu/FMCS/ and to the 110 members of its "Snail Defense League" listed above. We've been "developing human resources" and mounting "coordinated efforts to get funds" for "expeditions to undercollected areas" since 1998, and have yet to find a single dollar of support. Perhaps this is my failing. Might Mr. Whitten be available to consult?

The main symposium presentations were as follows:

• Winston Ponder - The research vs. conservation dilemma (Australian examples)
• R.A.D. Cameron - Species/area in land snails
• Philippe Bouchet - Marine Indo-Pacific diversity
• Rob Cowie - Alien invasions (focus on Pacific island land snails)
• Dick Neves - Propagation of North American unionids
• Joe Heller - Using GIS on land snails in Israel
• Thierry Backeljau - Genetics & conservation

These talks were followed by a general discussion session, during which both Dick Neves and I offered advertisements for the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society. Although primarily North American at this point, the FMCS does in fact solicit a worldwide membership. I had a couple inquiries later.

The primary concern, both in the main symposium presentations and in the "satellite" sessions that followed, seemed to be land snail conservation, with the unionaceans (especially Margaritifera) running a respectable second and marine faunas third. Freshwater gastropods came to the fore only in a presentation by Ioan Sirbu (Lucian Blaga University, Romania) on the severe human impacts suffered by the freshwaters of Transylvania and Banat. Among 51 gastropod and 22 bivalve species, 25 appear on the author's personal "Red List."

I don't intend to fuss about the relative absence of freshwater gastropods from this particular part of the Vienna program. I think the symposium as organized by Killeen and Seddon offered a fair reflection of world conservation consciousness as it flickers briefly upon the Mollusca.

There were plenty of papers and posters dealing with freshwater gastropods in the general sessions*. The symposium on the endemic molluscan faunas of the ancient lakes organized by Frank Wesselingh and Ellinor Michel was excellent. The program for the entire congress may be viewed at: http://www.univie.ac.at/WCM2001/ All the abstracts will also be published at the address above, organized alphabetically by author. (Currently authors A - E are on line, others "will follow in a few days.")

Thanks are due to the organizers of The Congress, especially Gerhard Steiner and Luitfried Salvini-Plawen of the University of Vienna, for their efforts in bringing a marvelous conference to fruition.

Keep in touch,
Rob

*However, I think Amy Wethington and I offered the only two presentations specifically featuring North American freshwater gastropods. We reported that Physa heterostropha, Physa integra, and Physa acuta are all the same species. Our manuscript is currently in review at Invertebrate Biology.

Banff Snail Blitz

To the FWGNA group,

I thought I'd take the opportunity to pass along some excellent news from Dwayne Lepitzki of Wildlife Systems Research in Banff. The "Banff Springs Snail," Physa johnsoni, is featured on the Government of Canada's 2001 species at risk poster!
http://www.sararegistry.gc.ca/default_e.cfm

The poster ("Big or Small, We Protect Them All") may be ordered from the website free of charge, even by those of us from south of the border. I ordered mine July 15 and was pleased to receive it today.

The reverse of the poster features a nice, popular write-up on P. johnsoni, including sections on its habitat, threats, and recovery plans. There's even a photo of Dwayne and Linda Lepitzki monitoring snail numbers.

As an added bonus, the text and photos from the back of the poster headline "Envirozine," Environment Canada's on-line newsmagazine for the week of August 3.

Congratulations are in order for Dwayne and all his colleagues for moving The Cause of freshwater gastropod conservation into the spotlight. Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Rob

No Great Honor

To the FWGNA group,

Yesterday's mail brought us formal notification that the proposal we wrote last fall to the NSF Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program was not funded. Apparently the BS&I program reviewed 84 proposals this year*, of which only 10 - 15 will be funded, "few at the requested amount." It's no great shame to receive a rejection under such circumstances, but as Tevye (from Fiddler on the Roof) said, "It's no great honor, either."

The NSF reviewers offered many glowing comments about our proposed effort, but the bottom line was simply that they didn't feel we have the taxonomic expertise necessary. This is especially frustrating because the 109 of us currently involved in the FWGNA project represent just about all the taxonomic expertise available.

Perhaps we need to re-order our tasks. Taxonomic review was originally scheduled for Phase III of the FWGNA project, but perhaps we should move it to Phase I. An NSF "PEET" proposal (Project to Enhance Expertise in Taxonomy) might be the logical first step.

It is also possible that some of the activities we scheduled under Phase II could be moved forward. I'm happy to report that an NSF proposal submitted by Rob Guralnick and his colleagues at the University of Colorado Museum was funded by the Biological Databases and Informatics Program. Rob's project will see all CU collections (everything!) databased, geocoded, and available for GIS visualization by 2004. Rob and I are exploring how the Colorado infrastructure might be expanded.

I hope that all 109 of you understand that the FWGNA project is not some sort of monolithic enterprise being guided from the top down. You should all feel free to take initiatives of any sort. I was happy to write a letter of support for Rob's proposal, and I would be happy to get behind anybody else with an idea on how to get this important job done.

We definitely need to put our heads together. Please send me any comments or suggestions you may have. Current plans call for a major strategy session in Charleston in August, 2002, but perhaps we can meet earlier.

Keep in touch,
Rob

*Last year the NSF reviewed 72 proposals to the BS&I program, and about 18 were funded. This is a worrisome trend.