Not Blown away: Over Three-Quarters of Species in a Pacific Atoll Land Snail Assemblage Remain Five Years Post-Typhoon

Severe storms have the potential to disperse land snails carried by strong winds between islands and archipelagos or to drown endemic fauna in storm surges. We compared land snail assemblages collected from Ngcheangel atoll (Kayangel State, Republic of Palau, Oceania) before and after the passage of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Most land snail species, including two species endemic to the atoll, remained present after the storm. Three species were not recovered post-Haiyan, and three species were reported for the first time after the storm. We conclude that the atoll's land snail fauna is fairly resilient to the impacts of severe storms. This finding raises the hope that at least one harbinger of climate change – increased prevalence and severity of storms – may pose minimal risk to certain imperiled and endemic Pacific Island land snails.