Population viability analysis of land snails on limestone hills in Gunung Kanthan, Perak, Malaysia – Phase 1

Understanding the fauna and flora population trends is essential for decision making in the prioritisation of limestone hill’s biodiversity conservation efforts and in the rehabilitation strategy formulation for degraded limestone habitat. However, there is lack of systematic population viability analysis on vulnerable organisms which are obligate to limestone hill. Occasionally, conservation status of the endangered organisms is mainly inferred from limited population biology data. We propose to fill these gaps by conducting basic population biology studies of subfamily Alycaeinae land snails and population viability analysis on these land snails at Gunung Kanthan, Perak. Firstly, we will conduct two studies to obtain the data on (1) population density and size; (2) demography in term of survival rates, reproduction rate and growth rate, and (3) ecological niche in term of the habitat’s microclimatic conditions and substrate physical and chemical properties, of land snails. Secondly, the land snail populations will be monitored for the entire duration of this project to estimate the temporal and spatial variation of the population parameters. Lastly, population viability analysis (PVA) will be performed based on simulations of deterministic model and stochastic model which will be constructed by using population parameters. The PVA analyses of these land snail species will provide an insight into the probability that land snail populations will decline, increase or extinct and how species would response to the ecological stress due to the alteration of habitat and microclimate. Finally, the findings of this project on these selected land snails may be used to estimate other land snail species that with the similar niche on limestone hill and to formulate action plan for the rehabilitation of limestone hill biodiversity.