Land and freshwater snails: a too poorly known fauna of the quarries

The main goal is to realize a large survey of Loën quarry malacofauna, that is land and freshwater snails (molluscs).

These poorly known animals contribute to the biodiversity : there are about 200 land and freshwater species in Belgium (about 100.000 marine, land freshwater species in the world). The land snails live in various biotopes : forests, wetlands, cliffs, rocks, screes, fields, dry landscape, … The freshwater snails live in flowing as well as in standing waters. They are almost all also accurate indicators of environmental health.

That's because it would be of very high interest to identify, photograph on the field, list and establish distribution maps of these interesting species, especially in the Loën quarry because one can find there various biotopes sites, sites that are closed and so protected. Moreover, the quarry is located between other biodiversity interesting areas where native and invasive molluscs species has been already reported.