Millimeter-sized smart sensors reveal that a solar refuge protects tree snail Partula hyalina from extirpation
| Autor: | Cindy S. Bick, Trevor Coote, Amanda E. Haponski, Diarmaid Ó Foighil, David Blaauw, Inhee Lee |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Conservation of Natural Resources Food Chain QH301-705.5 Behavioural ecology Snails Endangered species Medicine (miscellaneous) Tree snail Snail Extinction Biological 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Article Polynesia General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Trees 03 medical and health sciences biology.animal parasitic diseases Animals Biology (General) 030304 developmental biology 0303 health sciences Ecology biology Conservation biology fungi Land snail biology.organism_classification Partula hyalina Smart Materials Habitat Euglandina rosea Sensory Aids Threatened species General Agricultural and Biological Sciences |
| Zdroj: | Communications Biology Communications Biology, Vol 4, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2399-3642 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s42003-021-02124-y |
| Popis: | Pacific Island land snails are highly endangered due in part to misguided biological control programs employing the alien predator Euglandina rosea. Its victims include the fabled Society Island partulid tree snail fauna, but a few members have avoided extirpation in the wild, including the distinctly white-shelled Partula hyalina. High albedo shell coloration can facilitate land snail survival in open, sunlit environments and we hypothesized that P. hyalina has a solar refuge from the predator. We developed a 2.2 × 4.8 × 2.4 mm smart solar sensor to test this hypothesis and found that extant P. hyalina populations on Tahiti are restricted to forest edge habitats, where they are routinely exposed to significantly higher solar radiation levels than those endured by the predator. Long-term survival of this species on Tahiti may require proactive conservation of its forest edge solar refugia and our study demonstrates the utility of miniaturized smart sensors in invertebrate ecology and conservation. Bick et al. describe a novel way of testing their hypothesis that an invasive predatory snail fails to drive to extinction a native, threatened non-predatory snail because both have different tolerance ranges for exposure to sunlight. They test it by developing a miniature light sensor, small enough to be carried by these snails on their shells. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
Full text from SpringerLink