Resting height of arboreal Littoraria in mangrove ecosystem

<p><span>In April 2017, a preliminary experiment was conducted near transect C. Firstly, we captured the elevation changes across the transect using a Global Navigation Satellite System-Real Time Kinematic GPS (G970 GNSS RTK, UniStrong Inc.) with a 5-10 meters distance interval, standardizing all elevation data to a baseline where the local mean sea level was set to zero. We established sites at 25 cm vertical intervals within an elevation range of 0-150 cm. At each site, plots with 5&times;5 m&sup2; were established, then we recorded the resting height of all observed arboreal mollusks, identifying and removing each individual post-recording to prevent duplicate records. Upon completing each plot survey, these individuals were released. This pre-experiment surveyed a total of nine plots. Through data analysis, we selected three&nbsp;<em>Littoraria</em> species, <em>L. ardouiniana</em>, <em>L. melanostoma</em> and <em>L. scabra</em>, as the focal species for subsequent surveys due to their widespread presence, high frequency, and abundance within the study area. These three species are easily distinguishable morphologically, which minimized the risk of potential misidentification. During this survey, we found that at each site, it became difficult to discover new individuals after about 40 minutes to 1 hour of observation. Following the same methodology, six transects were established in July 2018, spanning approximately 400-700 meters each. Due to variations in the length and elevation changes of each transect, 4-9 plots were set up along each, totaling 36 plots. PVC pipes were used to mark the corners of each plot. In December 2018, these 36 plots were surveyed again. Each survey point was assigned three volunteers, comprising two groups in total; each location was searched for over 40 minutes.</span></p>