Dear ecologgers, I have a series of large (800 L), outdoor mesocosms which contain numerous organisms, including many individuals of a physid snail species and a helisoma snail species. The size of the snails range from ~1 week post hatchling to adults, in the case of the physid individuals. Each mesocosm is about two feet tall, three feet in diameter, and has straight walls. Each mesocosm also has soil and leaves at the bottom of it. Just from observations, the snails are differentially inhabiting the tank walls, the leaf litter, and the soil. I am looking for a suitable, non-destructive method of sampling the snails in all three microhabitats in such a way that will not greatly disturb either the litter or the soil, but would give consistent assessments of snail populations (both size or mass, and counts). I was curious if anyone knew of, or practiced a sampling method in ponds or mesocosms which fits my needs.
Thank you, Aaron Stoler University of Pittsburgh Department of Biology Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology 410.365.7700 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
