Abstract
We evaluated the abundance of riparian gastropod communities along headwater streams and their response to logging in southwestern Washington State. Terrestrial mollusks near logged streams with ∼15 m fixed-width buffers were compared to logged streams with no buffers and to unlogged controls. Mollusk communities varied among sites relative to vegetative composition, the amount of understory cover and presence of seeps or small wetland features in the riparian areas. After logging, slug and snail abundance were significantly different between streams with no buffers compared to fixed-width buffers and control streams, however the effect size was relatively small suggesting site variability may override the effects of logging. Our findings illustrate that site variability can affect mollusk community structure and influence taxa resiliency to disturbances such as logging.
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