Abstract
This paper presents a research of the floodplain mollusc communities of the Ploučnice River (Elbe tributary, North Bohemia, Czech Republic). Altogether, 66 mollusc species (65 species of gastropods, one species of bivalve) were recorded in the 35 floodplain forest sites during the research between 2007 and 2011, representing 27% of the total Czech malacofauna.
More than a half of all species represents the common forest species (52% of all recorded species) with some rare woodland species as Aegopinella nitidula, Daudebardia rufa, Macrogastra ventricosa, Oxychilus depressus, O. glaber and two endangered species Clausilia bidentata and Daudebardia brevipes. Rare wetland species protected by the NATURA system Vertigo angustior and vulnerable V. antivertigo were also found.
The occurrence of these rare species (two of them endangered, three vulnerable, and 11 near threatened) makes the Ploučnice river alluvium as an important mollusc refugium of prime conservation importance in this fragmented Czech landscape of long-term agricultural land use.