North American freshwater gastropods remain an understudied, yet critically imperiled, fauna. As part of a larger discussion on freshwater mollusks in this special issue, we review 4 specific areas of concern regarding freshwater gastropods and discuss how best to address those concerns in the context of conservation. Areas of concern include freshwater gastropod conservation strategies, taxonomy and systematics, ecological research, and conservation challenges. We illustrate how each of these topics relates to conservation efforts and discuss opportunities to improve our baseline knowledge of freshwater gastropod taxonomy, ecology, and conservation. We emphasize throughout that effective conservation strategies require the participation of as many affected and interested groups, from local communities to governmental agencies, as possible for successful implementation and management. We offer suggestions for the direction of cooperative conservation with regard to freshwater gastropods.
We used personal mobile electronic devices (PMEDs) to engage students in a lesson to support evolutionary thinking in an undergraduate biology course. Community-college students enrolled in Biodiversity & Evolution, a core majors biology course, met for an optional field trip at the University of Idaho's McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) in central Idaho during the summer of 2014. Ten students participated in the classroom and outdoor activities. Students were provided with directions and objectives for the lesson, and students’ own PMEDs were used to capture images of the community of organisms in and around the outdoor campus. After returning from the field, students analyzed their digital data in the context of morphological similarities and differences to construct a phylogenetic hypothesis for the relationships of the organisms observed. Students’ comments were solicited regarding the activity, and feedback was generally positive. From the teachers’ perspective, students appeared highly engaged and the novel method was a success. We discuss the theoretical basis for using PMEDs and provide a detailed lesson plan.
We present here the known life history, ecology, and distribution of the Jackson Lake springsnail (Pyrgulopsis robusta) based on original research, field collected information, and review of the available literature from primary sources, government publications, and private industry reports. We report on the feeding, reproductive biology, life cycle, habitat use, and distribution of P. robusta in the northwestern United States. INTRODUCTIONThe Jackson Lake springsnail (Pyrgulopsis robusta; Gastropoda: Hydrobiidae) was first described by Walker (1908) and placed in the genus Pornatiopsis. After several taxonomic revisions, Hershler and Thompson (1987) assigned the species to the genus Pyrgulopsis and more recently Hershler and Liu (2004a) combined P. robusta with three species formerly placed in the subgenus Natricola. Pvrgulopsis is the second largest genus of freshwater mollusks in North America, comprising over 120 described species (Hershler 1998). The greatest diversity of the genus occurs in the Great Basin of the western United States (Hershler and Sada 2000). Despite the great diversity of Pyrgulopsis, many species remain poorly known (Hershler 1998). P. robusta is presently known from four western States including Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The isolated populations are widely separated and were previously considered different species (Hershler and Liu 2004a). We refer to these for convenience as the northwestern Wyoming population, the Snake River population, the Columbia River population, and the southeastern Oregon population (Fig. 1).The genus Pvrgulopsis has been the focus of considerable study due to the utility of the group to provide inferences regarding the hydrographic history of the Great Basin (Hershler and Sada 2002) and the Pacific Northwest (Hershler and Liu 2004b). Specifically, P. robusta has recently been the focus of considerable attention due, in part, to its consideration for threatened or endangered status under the Endangered Species Act (USDI 2006). Fore and Clark (2005) have discussed sampling designs for the species along with some distributional and ecological information; Lysne andKoetsier (2006a and 2006b) provided habitat and other ecological information;and Hershler (1994and 1998), Hershler and Sada (2002 and Liu (2004a and2004b) have reported on the taxonomy and biogeography of the taxon. The petitioning of P. robusta prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the status of the species, resulting in a "best available information" report containing a great deal of information from a wide variety of sources (USFWS 2005). We distill that report in the present work, combine our observations and results, and present the information relevant to the life history and
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