Puig-Gironès, RogerSantos, XavierBros, Vicenç2024-11-142024-11-142023-030376-8929https://hdl.handle.net/2445/216480Species tend to peak in abundance at different times after fires. Over time, species richness (α) and landscape heterogeneity are prone to increase and lead to greater between-site diversity (β). However, post-fire salvage logging can reduce β-diversity, both directly and through its influence on succession. The as-yet understudied response of land snails to long-term habitat modification after wildfires and forest management is important for decision-making in forest restoration and conservation. We expected to detect differences in land snails and diversity in both the short and long term and between treatments in a natural park in the Mediterranean Basin. However, our results showed that post-fire management was a non-significant variable for snail community diversity, the exception being open-habitat endemic species. Plant succession and leaf litter cover were the main variables that shaped snail diversity and abundance over time after fires. Eighteen years after a fire, the land snail diversity had improved and the community composition had diversified, irrespective of the post-fire treatment, but threatened species disappeared and the total snail numbers had notably declined. To preserve threatened open-habitat species, prescribed fires and livestock grazing are recommended in combination with mature areas that can act as shelters where forest snails can recover from future disturbances.10 p.application/pdfengcc-by (c) Puig-Gironès, Roger et al., 2023http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/Cargols (Zoologia)Incendis forestalsSnails (Zoology)Forest firesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article7515272024-11-14info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess