Data from: Forest snail faunas from Transylvania (Romania), and their relationship to the faunas of Central and Northern Europe

Forty-three forest sites in seven sampling areas in mountainous parts of Transylvania were sampled to obtain inventories of their snail faunas, and to make comparisons between these and the faunas of similar sites further north along the Carpathian chain. Sampling areas ran from close to the Ukrainian border in the north to Retezat in the south-west. Altogether, 83 species were found, and between 19 and 40 species at individual sites. Sites within the same sampling area had more species in common than in among-area comparisons, but differences between areas did not relate to distance between them. Such differences appeared to relate more to ecological factors than to geography. Faunas of all areas were very similar to those recorded from the Polish and Ukrainian Carpathians; distance from these northern faunas had little effect on similarity. More broadly, the fauna of these forests shows much greater affinity to those of countries to the north than to those of countries to the south. Despite the survival of forests through the last glacial period of the Pleistocene, and the greater proximity to potential Mediterranean refugia, these faunas appear to be mainly a subset of those found further north. They represent a rather small proportion of the known Romanian fauna, in which there are many endemics restricted to other habitats.

本研究对特兰西瓦尼亚（Transylvania）山地7个采样区域内的43处森林样地开展系统采样，以获取其蜗牛区系（snail faunas）名录，并与沿喀尔巴阡山脉带向北分布的同类样地的蜗牛区系进行对比分析。采样区域北至接近乌克兰边境的地带，西南至勒特扎特（Retezat）山地。本次调查共记录到83个蜗牛物种，单处样地的物种数介于19至40种之间。同一采样区域内的样地共享物种数显著多于不同区域间的样地，但区域间的区系差异与样地间的空间距离并无关联，此类差异更多与生态因子相关，而非地理因素。所有采样区域的蜗牛区系均与波兰、乌克兰喀尔巴阡山脉的记录区系高度相似；与北部这些区系的空间距离对区系相似度影响微弱。从更宏观的尺度来看，本研究涉及的森林蜗牛区系与北部国家的区系亲缘性远高于南部国家。尽管这些森林在更新世（Pleistocene）末次冰期得以存续，且更接近潜在的地中海避难所（Mediterranean refugia），但本区系仍主要是北部区域区系的一个子集。该蜗牛区系仅占罗马尼亚已知蜗牛区系的极小比例，而罗马尼亚已知区系中包含大量局限于其他生境的特有种（endemics）。