I am starting a project where I will be trying to compare the amounts of available food for box turtles on different site. They have diverse diets, and some of what may be important includes terrestrial snails, slugs, worms, and mushrooms. I need to come up with ways to estimate biomass of these groups, and for now will not worry about species identification. Anyone out there have experience measuring biomass of these groups? For snails and slugs and mushrooms, I am considering line transect searches under comparable moist conditions with appropriate temperatures. For worms, I have been reading about the use of water with powdered mustard mixed in to drive them to the surface. Anyone actually done this?
Dr. Russell Burke Professor Department of Biology Hofstra University
