Project title: Investigation of molluscan fauna of Gueishan Island, Taiwan.

Personnel: Chih-Wei Huang (collection identifier, data collector, data manager, data publisher), Ta-Wei Hsiung (collection identifier, data collector, data manager), Yen-Chen Lee (collection identifier), Si-Min Lin (Project Director), Wen-Lung Wu (Project Director, data manager).

Funding: Academia Sinica; National Science Council, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.(Taiwan); Forest Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.(Taiwan).

Study area descriptions/descriptor: Gueishan Island is located about 10 km from Taiwan. The island was formed via volcanic activity about 1.65 Ma ago and experienced multiple volcanic eruption events until 20 ka ago (Juang et al. 2011). It is considered the only active volcanic island near Taiwan. The land area of the island is about 2.85 km², and the highest peak of the island is 398 meters above sea level. There are two lakes on the island, one of which consist of brackish water (Head Lake) and the other of freshwater (Tail Lake) (Figure 1). Humans colonized Gueishan Island in mid-19th century, by forming a small village. Later in 1977, all residents were moved back to Taiwan due to military requirements for the island. The fauna of this island were not investigated systematically until 2000, when the island came under the management of the Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area Administration, Tourism Bureau, MOTC and was open to tourists.

Design description: Island species are vulnerable to extinction due to their relatively small population size and limited access to resources. The number of species on an island represents a dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction. Volcanic islands provide particularly interesting cases of island biogeography, in that their biota is erased by volcanic activity and recolonized from neighboring regions. Species on Gueishan Island may have under gone several cycles of extinction after volcanic eruption, followed by recolonization from Taiwan when the sea-level dropped during glacial periods. Human activity may also have provided opportunities for colonization of mollusks, either intentionally or accidentally. Investigations of molluscan fauna have been previously conducted on Gueishan Island, but these did not involve a comprehensive examination of land snails. We performed a literature survey using diverse databases, in order to collect previously identified reports on molluscan fauna of Gueishan Island. In addition, we performed field sampling of mollusks in marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments during 2011 and 2012 to establish the inventory of molluscan fauna of Gueishan Island. We considered both the topography of the island and the habitats of mollusks during our field investigation. We focused on the terrestrial environment, as the majority of the earlier investigations examined non-terrestrial habitats. In total, our literature survey and field investigation identified 126 species from 71 genera and 45 families of Mollusca on Gueishan Island. This dataset provides basic information on the island’s biodiversity.

General taxonomic coverage description: The coverage of this dataset includes 126 species from 71 genera and 45 families of Mollusks of marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments on Gueishan Island (Table 1). It includes Class Gastropoda (88.10%), Class Bivalvia (8.73%), Class Cephalopoda (1.59%), and Class Polyplacophora (1.59%). The top five representative families are Cypraeidae (20 species, 15.87%), Trochidae (13 species, 10.32%), Muricidae (11 species, 8.73%), Neritidae (8 species, 6.35%), and Littorinidae (5 species, 3.97%) (Figure 2).

General spatial coverage: The spatial coverage of the literature and our field investigation ranged from a latitude of 24°49'48"N to 24°51'0"N and a longitude of 121°55'48"E to 121°57'36"E. It includes the marine, intertidal, freshwater and terrestrial environment of Gueishan Island, Taiwan (Figure 1)

Coordinates: 24°49'48"N and 24°51'0"N Latitude; 121°55'48"E and 121°57'36"E Longitude

1934–2012.

The data underpinning the analysis reported in this paper are deposited at GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, http://taibif.org.tw/ipt/resource.do?r=gueishan_island

Dataset description: This dataset incorporates seven publications (Hayasaka and Tan 1934, Kuroda 1938, Kuroda 1941, Jung and Lai 1999, Wu 2002, National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium 2003, Hwang and Lee 2003) associated with the molluscan fauna of Gueishan Island and field investigation results. The dataset includes sampling date, taxonomy information, GPS location, elevation, type of habitat, name of collector, method of collection, and literature record. Based on the literature published during the period between 1934 and 2003, 112 species from 61 genera and 37 families of Mollusca were recorded on Gueishan Island. Of the 34 species from 28 genera and 23 families identified during our 2011-2012 field investigation, fourteen species were new records on Gueishan Island. In total, our literature survey and field investigation documents 126 species from 71 genera and 45 families of Mollusca on Gueishan Island. The fourteen newly recorded species are: Liolophura japonica (Lischke, 1873), Lottia luchuana (Pilsbry, 1901), Siphonaria laciniosa (Linnaeus, 1758), Nerita costata Gmelin, 1791, Nerita rumphii Recluz, 1841, and Littoraria undulata (Gray, 1839), which were sampled from the marine environment; Assiminea sp. and Laevapex nipponica (Kuroda, 1947), which were discovered in a freshwater environment, Tail Lake; and Solenomphala taiwanensis (Habe, 1942), Diplommatina suganikeiensis (Pilsbry & Hirase, 1905), Carychium hachijoensis Pilsbry, 1902, Zaptyx crassilamellata Kuroda, 1941, Allopeas pyrgula (Schmacker & Boettger, 1891), and Succinea erythrophana Ancey, 1883 discovered in the terrestrial environment. This dataset provide basic information for the island’s biodiversity and biogeography. This dataset will be maintained by the Malacology Lab, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica.

Object name: Darwin Core Archive Molluscan fauna of Gueishan Island, Taiwan

Character encoding: UTF-8

Format name: Darwin Core Archive format

Format version: 1.0

Distribution: http://taibif.org.tw/ipt/archive.do?r=gueishan_island

Publication date of data: 2012-12-21

Language: English

Licenses of use: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CCZero 1.0 License http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

Metadata language: English

Date of metadata creation: 2012-09-21

Hierarchy level: Dataset