Terrestrial Snails and Slugs in Two Urban Protected Areas
Little is known about the terrestrial malacofauna of two urban protected areas in Buenos Aires city (Argentina): Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur (RECS) and Reserva Ecológica Ciudad Universitaria Costanera Norte (RECUCN). We conducted the first survey of terrestrial gastropods in RECS and RECUCN. Fourteen species in RECS and 12 in RECUCN were found, both dominated by non-native gastropods (98.4% non-native individuals vs. 1.6% native in RECS, 97.5% vs. 2.5% in RECUCN). More than 78% of the individuals found in RECUCN belonged to a single species of non-native snail. We show that urban protected areas in Buenos Aires city are sites where mainly exotic rather than native terrestrial molluscs are being preserved. As previously reported for other regions, the dominance of non-native species in RECS and RECUCN endorses the pervasive advance of synanthropic species in urban land gastropods assemblages.
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