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.

本研究针对特兰西瓦尼亚（Transylvania）山区的7个采样区域内的43处森林样地开展系统采样，以完成其陆生蜗牛类群区系（snail faunas）的编目，并与喀尔巴阡山脉（Carpathian chain）沿线更北部的同类样地的区系进行对比。采样区域的分布范围北至临近乌克兰边境的区域，西南抵雷泰扎特（Retezat）山脉。本次采样共记录到83个蜗牛物种，单处样地的物种丰富度介于19至40种之间。同一采样区域内的样地相较于跨区域样地，共享的物种数量更多；但不同区域间的区系差异与样地间的地理距离并无关联，此类差异更多由生态因子驱动，而非地理因素。所有采样区域的蜗牛类群区系与波兰、乌克兰喀尔巴阡山区记录的区系极为相似，与北部这些区系的地理距离对群落相似度几乎无影响。从宏观生物地理视角来看，该区域森林的蜗牛类群区系与北部国家的区系亲缘度显著高于南部国家。尽管这些森林在更新世（Pleistocene）末次冰期得以存续，且距离潜在的地中海生物避难所（refugia）更近，但该区域的蜗牛类群区系本质上仍是北部区域所记录区系的一个子集。该类群仅占罗马尼亚已知陆生蜗牛类群区系的极小比例，而罗马尼亚已知区系中存在大量仅局限于其他生境的特有物种。