Apple Snail Research

Cold Tolerance

Many organisms have the ability to acclimate their physiology to allow them to better respond to their environment. Acclimation to cold temperatures as the seasons change from summer, to fall may allow increased survival during the colder winter months. Research in our lab suggests that apple snails can acclimate to cold temperatures and this increases their survivability to even temporary colder temperatures much like a cold spell or freezing conditions experienced during Louisiana winters.

Life History

Invasive species are often successful because they can exploit their naive environment by being better competitors than our native species. Our lab is investigating key life history components that contribute to their invasive potential including growth rates, fecundity, and survival. Our research suggests that apple snails can reach sexual maturity in less than a year, can live for over two years, and can reproduce for more than a year.

Potential Distribution

Invasive species have the ability to rapidly spread in their new environments. We can predict their spread through species distribution modeling. Our life-history data can be used to make a mechanistic model that can predict population viability in relation to monthly temperatures. Preliminary work in our lab suggests that apple snails have not realized their full distribution. This is important because we can identify areas where they may occur and prevent their spread to these areas.