Habitat and Geography
Habitat
Patera appressa lives in a select few habitats and
only in specific ecological niches, as this snail occupies a
relatively small area. The snails in Canada were found in
a Northern White Cedar Forest, which has a rocky hillside (Nekola,
2009). Patera appressa ordinarily lives in a forest
or woodland habitat but they need to be mesic forests, meaning
an adequate amount of water and moisture to support healthy
snail life opposed to xeric areas, which will not allow for
reproduction to occur (Turgeon, 1998). The adequate amount
of moisture is kept on the surface floor of the forest due to
trees making a full canopy to prevent light penetration
(mass.gov, 2007).
The nutrient rich mesic forests are only found
on slopes at relatively low to moderate elevations where
calcareous bedrock occurs (mass.gov,
2007). Coincidentally, the
vast majority of snail population with carbonate cliffs have a
calcareous substrate layer (Nekola, 2009).
This could help explain why the area of this snail is relatively
small. Patera appressa is found most often in river
bluffs or rocky areas, but they are not alone (Hubricht, 1985).
There are numerous other species that live in
mesic forests. They include a wide array of common birds,
moths, and plants, as well as rare species that can only
maintain live in mesic habitat (Basile, 2005). The most
common trees that make up the canopy are sugar maple, which are
the most dominant, followed by basswood and white ash (nhdfl.org,
2012).
The herbaceous ground layer is made up by a variety of sedges,
mosses, ferns, buttercups, and lilies depending on the time of
year, present conditions, or time of year (mass.gov,
2007). Mesic forests also contain rare plant species such as
Dryopteris goldiana, which is the Goldie's fern
(nhdfl.org, 2012). Other animals can also be found living here
too, such as salamanders, other snails, snakes, turtles, and a
wide array of birds (mass.gov, 2007).
Geography
Patera appressa lives in regions only with the
supported habitat mentioned above. These occur in small
parts of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
In North America, Patera appressa lives as far north as
Lake Trenton in Ontario, Canada and as far south as Alabama (Nekola,
2009). This includes the rocky areas of the
Appalachian mountain range in Tennessee, North and South
Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and
even parts outside of the mountain range in Indiana and
Illinois. Patera appressa is also found off the
coast of the United States in the islands of Bermuda.
According to the research by Nekola, the Patera appressa
snail habitat globally spans between 80,000 and 1,000,000 square
miles (Nekola, 2009).
