Michael L. Mckinney

University of Tennessee at Knoxville | UTK · Earth and Planetary Sciences

Full text also Available on https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/hd/g2024v46a13-pdfa.pdf Reports of cannibalistic behavior in fossil muricids are scarce and are only known from the Quaternary. This study presents evidence of cannibalism among Crassimurex (s.s.) calcitrapa (Lamarck,1803), from the Lutetian of the Paris Basin (F...

The rosy wolfsnail (Euglandina rosea) is a carnivorous, highly detrimental invader in many parts of the world. Although its negative impact on endemic island mollusk populations has been well documented, little is known about its range expansion in North America, where populations are not constrained by oceanic barriers. In this study, we present t...

The rosy wolfsnail ( Euglandina rosea ) is a carnivorous, highly detrimental invader in many parts of the world. While its negative impact on endemic island mollusk populations has been well documented, little is known about its range expansion in North America, where populations are not constrained by oceanic barriers. In this study, we present th...

The rosy wolfsnail ( E. rosea ) is a carnivorous, highly detrimental invader in many parts of the world. While its negative impact on endemic island mollusk populations has been well documented, little is known about its range expansion in North America, where populations are not constrained by oceanic barriers. In this study, we present three comp...

Urban ecosystems have great potential for urban biodiversity conservation, but achieving conservation goals relies on comprehensive ecological assessments to assist in active management practices; however, land use changes in urban ecosystems have led to unique abiotic and biotic inputs that have affected and altered below-ground soil composition,...

Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae; HWA), an invasive aphid-like insect, was first documented on the East Coast of the United States in the 1950 s. Hemlock woolly adelgid is an herbivore which primarily feeds at the needle base of hemlock tree species (Pinaceae: Tsuga). With no evolutionary defenses and few biotic controls, the eastern and Caro...

Urban wastelands have great potential for promoting biodiversity. As many cities shrink in size, these unused areas will continue to increase while available revenues for land maintenance will decrease. Managing such wastelands in ways that promote biodiversity, such as encouraging spontaneous vegetation and ecological succession, reduces maintenan...

We introduce a new metric, "taxonomic flux", to quantify evolutionary trends both within and across taxonomic boundaries. This metric is normalized, which reduces the effect of sample size disparity between biologic groups and time intervals. Furthermore, this methodology considers stratigraphic range data as a whole, and measures relative growth o...

Non‐native species have invaded most parts of the world, and the invasion process is expected to continue and accelerate. Because many invading non‐native species are likely to become permanent inhabitants, future consideration of species‐area relationships (SARs) should account for non‐native species, either separately or jointly with native speci...

To better understand how ecosystems are changing, a multifaceted approach to measuring biodiversity that considers species richness (SR) and evolutionary history across spatial scales is needed. Here, we compiled 162 datasets for fish, bird and plant assemblages across the globe and measured how taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity changed at diffe...

The contiguous United States (CONUS) harbor a significant non-native species diversity. However, spatiotemporal trends of some groups such as terrestrial gastropods (i.e., land snails and slugs) have not been comprehensively considered, and therefore management has been hindered. Here, our aims were to 1.) compile a dataset of all non-native terres...

Purpose of Review We examined recent literature on the human health impacts of natural green infrastructure (NGI). NGI refers to green space that requires less maintenance than traditional formal urban green spaces such as city parks. Where declining cities have excess land and fewer funds for land maintenance, NGI is globally emerging as a cost-ef...

We present the first major systematic study of land snail diversity on green roofs. We surveyed 27 green roofs and the adjacent ground habitat in six major cities in the southeastern United States. We found a total of 18 species of land snails, with three considered to be non-native or invasive species. The majority of land snails encountered in su...

As the biosphere undergoes greater interconnectivity from globalization, problems associated with the movement of non-native species are increasingly prevalent. Non-native species can present a wide range of difficulties in areas where they are introduced, including issues associated with agriculture, ecosystem viability, disease, and the decline o...

We present the first major systematic study of land snail diversity on green roofs. We surveyed 27 green roofs and the adjacent ground habitat in six major cities in the southeastern United States. We found a total of 18 species of land snails, with three considered to be non-native, invasive species. The majority of land snails encountered in surv...

Molecular studies have recently led to the detection of many cryptic species complexes within morphologically ambiguous species formerly undescribed by the scientific community. Organisms such as land snails are at a particularly higher risk of species misidentification and misinterpretation, in that gastropod systematics are based almost entirely...

Urbanization has tremendous impacts on most native species. This is especially true in land snails, which are surprisingly understudied organisms. Due to their low mobility and dispersal potential, land snails are valuable indicators of ecosystem disturbance. For this study, land snails were collected in 54 city parks along an urban gradient to und...

Cave-obligate (troglobiotic) land snails are among the most understudied taxa inhabiting cave systems because of their small size and cryptic nature. Other than locality records and general descriptions of species’ morphology, information regarding most cave snail taxa is minimal. Given the importance of land snails as indicator species and as impo...

While wildlands are increasingly being transformed into managed ecosystems in rural areas around the world, cities are now also being recognized for their “wilderness” areas. Cities and wilderness have a complex relationship based on constantly changing human-nature interactions and social values. Therefore, understanding the complex nature of the...

The Knoxville Urban Wilderness (KUW) in Eastern Tennessee is part of a larger global trend of acquiring vacant lands within urban landscapes for their natural habitat and recreation value. At 688. ha, the KUW is one of the largest urban wilderness areas in the United States, consisting of loosely-connected land parcels with multiple stakeholders in...

A diverse snail fauna exists within the caves of central and eastern North America, represented by over 95 genera and 260 terrestrial and aquatic species. In most freshwater and surface environments, gastropods play significant roles in many food webs and provide a diverse array of ecosystem services, including: accelerating decomposition of leaf l...

Euglandia rosea, or the "rosy wolfsnail", is a highly predatory carnivorous snail that is native to the coastal states of the southeastern U.S. It has been intentionally introduced to many parts of the world to control other introduced snail species, with ecologically disastrous results and the rapid decline of many native snail species. Surprising...

Hydraulic fracturing of shale deposits has greatly increased the productivity of the natural gas industry by allowing it to exploit previously inaccessible reservoirs. Previous research has demonstrated that this practice has the potential to contaminate shallow aquifers with methane (CH4) from deeper formations. This study compares concentrations...

A first look at conspecific predation within a Lutetian murex species. Random sampling revealed a similar ratio of attacks on the juveniles of the species C. calcitrappa by adults and other juveniles as on the general population of prey. No evidence of conspecific predation on the adults was found. Further study is continuing to confirm or negate t...

Occurrences of articulated, multi-element skeletons of edrioasteroids provide evidence of sudden burial and an opportunity for detailed paleoecologic analysis. This study examines two catastrophically buried communities of edrioasteroids from Florence, Kentucky and Sharonville, Ohio. In these two occurrences, the edrioasteroids Isorophus cincinnati...

Human activities have reorganized the earth's biota resulting in spatially disparate locales becoming more or less similar in species composition over time through the processes of biotic homogenization and biotic differentiation, respectively. Despite mounting evidence suggesting that this process may be widespread in both aquatic and terrestrial...

Since population studies are most reliable when applied to census assemblages, edrioasteroid paleoecology can best be understood by examining catastrophically buried obrution communities. This paleoeco-logic study examines a carbonate hardground surface encrusted with four species of isorophid edrioasteroids: Curvitriordo stecki, Carneyella ulrichi...

Aim Despite the increasing pace of urbanization, little is known about how this process affects biodiversity globally. We investigate macroecological patterns of bird assemblages in urbanized areas relative to semi-natural ecosystems. Location World-wide. Methods We use a database of quantitative bird surveys to compare key assemblage structure par...

McKinney, M. L. & Sumrall, C. D. 2010: Ambulacral growth allometry in edrioasteroids: functional surface-volume change in ontogeny and phylogeny. Lethaia, Vol. 44, pp. 102–108. Most organisms do not maintain geometric similarity as they grow, in large part because of surface-volume interactions. Because respiratory and food-acquiring organs are dep...

A new agelacrinitid edrioasteroid, Multiplexidiscus mckenziensis n. gen., n. sp. is described from the middle Silurian upper McKenzie Shale Member of the Mifflintown Formation of Pennsylvania. These edrioasteroids were attached to a large hardground clast that was reworked and flipped during a storm event. The occurrence of edrioasteroids in a near...

Background/Question/Methods Actions that demonstrate how to reduce environmental impacts are perhaps the best way to educate people about sustainability. The problem at educational institutions, especially very large ones with commuting populations, is how to implement these reductions in the face of economic and institutional obstacles. Events at...

There is a significant positive association between exotic plant species richness of an area and the human population size of that area. This association is notable not only for its high correlation (r2 = 0.69) but also because it spans five orders of magnitude for human population size. The correlation is apparently caused by the introduction of i...

It is commonly asserted that exotic species promote the homogenization of biological communities. However, theoretical evidence implies that exotic species may often have the opposite effect, of differentiating biological communities where different exotic species become established in different areas. Furthermore , few empirical studies have direc...

This study aims to examine the effects of introduced species on increasing (homogenizing) or decreasing (differentiating) floristic similarity of plant composition. We calculated the Jaccard index for each pair of counties within two states of USA, California and Florida. We computed the Jaccard index separately for all (native plus exotic) species...

Many studies have described the effects of urbanization on species richness. These studies indicate that urbanization can increase or decrease species richness, depending on several variables. Some of these variables include: taxonomic group, spatial scale of analysis, and intensity of urbanization. Recent reviews of birds (the most-studied group)...

Aim We examine how two categories of non‐native species (archaeophyte and neophyte, introduced before and after ad 1500, respectively) have had different impacts on β diversity across European urban floras. Our goal is to use the unique biological perspective provided by urban areas, and the contrasting historical and geographical perspectives prov...

The surface area of blastoid respiratory structures (hydrospires) shows positive allometry during ontogeny to offset the exponential increase in volume. Transverse cross-sections of thecae through an ontogenetic series in two blastoid species, Pentremites pyriformis and Pentremites godoni, were used to calculate surface area and volume within the h...

The "botanist effect" is thought to be the reason for higher plant species richness in areas where botanists are disproportionately present as an artefactual consequence of a more thorough sampling. We examined whether this was the case for U.S. counties. We collated the number of species of vascular plants, human population size, and the area of U...

Aim Changes in community attributes due to the influence of anthropogenic activities have been examined primarily using occurrence data with little consideration of associated changes in abundance. To determine how this influences our perception of biotic homogenization, we examined compositional patterns for avian assemblages over space and time a...

Anthropogenic activities have weakened biogeographical barriers to dispersal resulting in the global spread and establishment of an increasing number of non-native species. We examine the broad-scale consequences of this phenomenon based on an analysis of compositional similarity across urban floras in the northeastern United States and Europe. We...

Aim To determine whether invasive and locally abundant non‐native species have a more homogenizing effect on plant communities than non‐invasive and less abundant non‐native species. Location California and Florida counties, conservation areas in the USA, and eight US cities. Methods Species lists among counties, conservation areas and cities were...

There is evidence that, within a region, non-native species introduced from nearby sources (extralimital native) promote homogenization and non-native species introduced from distant sources (exotic) promote differentiation of species composition. A possible explanation for these associations is that they are related to differences in the distribut...

Branching (birth–death) models are used to project the time to extinction for bird and mammal orders. While such projections are very coarse, they provide information on how long fundamental units of biodiversity, as represented by such higher taxa as orders, will persist at specified rates of species extinction. The results of a basic decay model...

Human population and urbanization is unprecedented in its rate of growth and geographic scope. With the help of humans, exotic species have piggybacked their way to distant lands, which in combination with the loss of endemic native species, has led to the convergence of biological communities toward common and ubiquitous forms. However, the extent...

When measured by extent and intensity, urbanization is one of the most homogenizing of all major human activities. Cities homogenize the physical environment because they are built to meet the relatively narrow needs of just one species, our own. Also, cities are maintained for centuries in a disequilibrium state from the local natural environment...

Several extrinsic factors (area, native species diversity, human population size and latitude) significantly influence the non-native species richness of plants, over several orders of magnitude. Using several data sets, I examine the role of these factors in non-native species richness of several animal groups: birds, mammals and herptiles (amphib...

Biotic homogenization is occurring in many biota as widespread introduced species are replacing unique native species. Although efforts to document homogenization have increased, no studies have explicitly compared the homogenizing effects of species introduced from distant areas to the homogenizing effects of species introduced from more proximate...

The concept of heterochrony has long had a central place in evolutionary theory. During their long history, heterochrony and several associated concepts such as paedomorphosis and neoteny have often been contentious and they continue to be criticized. Despite these criticisms, we review many examples showing that heterochrony and its associated con...

Analysis of 688 state parks and 41 national parks shows that total trail length in a park has a significant decelerating scaling relationship with park area. Larger parks have much lower trail densities (less trail per acre) than smaller parks. A decelerating scaling pattern is also found when the number of annual visitors is regressed onto park ar...

It is commonly asserted that exotic species promote the homogenization of biological communities. However, theoretical evidence implies that exotic species may often have the opposite effect, of differentiating biological communities where different exotic species become established in different areas. Furthermore, few empirical studies have direct...

Aim To determine if non‐native plant species are homogenizing species composition among widely dispersed plant communities. Location Twenty localities in North America. Methods Species lists among localities were compared to measure the influence of non‐native species richness at each locality on the Jaccard Index (JI) of similarity between localit...

▪ Abstract Extinction is rarely random across ecological and geological time scales. Traits that make some species more extinction-prone include individual traits, such as body size, and abundance. Substantial consistency appears across ecological and geological time scales in such traits. Evolutionary branching produces phylogenetic (as often meas...

Red-list data from non-island nations show that a greater proportion of protected area is correlated with significantly lower percentages of threatened birds, mammals and plants, and especially overharvested birds and mammals, once the effects of endemism, human population size, and other confounding variables are removed. Proportion, number and si...

I examined a data set of 77 protected areas in the USA (including national and state parks) to determine which of the following variables most strongly influence alien plant species richness: park area, climate (temperature and precipitation), native species richness, visitation rate, local human population size, total road length, park shape and d...

Global Red List data on mammals, birds and plants for over 100non-island nations are used to identify the impact of area, endemism, humanpopulation, and many other social variables (urbanized population,human-dominated land, national wealth, % land protected) on proportions ofthreatened species among nations. Human population size and, especially,p...

Spatial autocorrelation statistics can provide an efficient tool for exploring taxonomic patterns in extinction risk. Using Moran's I , we found that U.S. vertebrates exhibit little or no taxonomic clustering of extinction threat within orders, but much greater clustering within families and genera. Among amphibians, clustering was unusually high w...

In a given area, human activities usually cause the extinction of native species and the establishment of non-native species. A key conservation issue is whether non-native establishment tends to outpace native species extinction to produce a net gain in species richness. To determine this, empirical data must be accumulated at various scales. I sh...

Of established nonindigenous plant species in California, Florida, and Tennessee, 5.8%, 9.7%, and 13.4%, respectively, invade natural areas according to designations tabulated by state Exotic Pest Plant Councils. Only Florida accords strictly with the tens rule, though California and Tennessee fall within the range loosely viewed as obeying the rul...

Non-native species diversity of plants and fishes in the contiguous 48 United States is analyzed to measure the influence of human population size, time of modern settlement, area and native species diversity. Besides exotic (from outside USA) plants, four types of non-native fishes are examined: established exotic fishes, reported exotic fishes, U...

Of established nonindigenous plant species in California, Florida, and Tennessee, 5.8%, 9.7%, and 13.4%, respectively, invade natural areas according to designations tabulated by state Exotic Pest Plant Councils. Only Florida accords strictly with the tens rule, though California and Tennessee fall within the range loosely viewed as obeying the rul...

It is commonly held that species loss is linked to human population size but there are surprisingly few quantitative studies that measure the strength and nature of this linkage. In a study of about 150 nations, a highly significant positive relationship (P << 0.01) was found between population size and threat levels of birds and mammals. For conti...

Biotic homogenization is the replacement of local biotas by nonindigenous and locally expanding species that can co-exist with humans (McKinney and Lockwood 1999). Because homogenization often replaces unique endemic species with already widespread species, it reduces spatial diversity at regional and global scales. Biotic homogenization is rapidly...

Biological homogenization is the dominant process shaping the future global biosphere. As global transportation becomes faster and more frequent, it is inevitable that biotic intermixing will increase. Unique local biotas will become extinct only to be replaced by already widespread biotas that can tolerate human activities. This process is affecti...

Biotic homogenization is seen as the consequence of preferential loss of native species followed by ecological replacement with widespread exotics. Homogenization is not random in its effects on higher taxa. Using Monte Carlo simulations (rather than binomial statistics) we find taxonomic patterns in the risk of extinction and probability of succes...

Biotic homogenization is seen as the consequence of preferential loss of native species followed by ecological replacement with widespread exotics. Homogenization is not random in its effects on higher taxa. Using Monte Carlo simulations (rather than binomial statistics) we find taxonomic patterns in the risk of extinction and probability of succes...

Human activities are not random in their negative and positive impacts on biotas. Emerging evidence shows that most species are declining as a result of human activities (‘losers’) and are being replaced by a much smaller number of expanding species that thrive in human-altered environments (‘winners’). The result will be a more homogenized biosphe...

Mass extinctions in the past have been characterized by abnormally high species extinction rates within almost all taxa. Attempts to estimate relative rates of extinction and threat among modern taxa, such as insects, plants, and vertebrates, are impeded by differences in the quality of information about each group. Insects and marine groups, for e...

Accumulation of species in geological time follows species-time curves that are similar to species-area curves, as predicted by Preston. The z-values of these fossil species-time curves range from 0.30 to 0.36, similar to species-area curves produced by sampling islands and other widely separated habitats. We suggest that such z-values in species-t...

“It's not all heterochrony.” Raff (1996) “Heterochrony … explains everything.” McNamara (1997) Few evolutionary topics have generated more confusion and controversy than heterochrony. Commonly defined as “evolution via change in rate or timing of development,” heterchrony has historically become associated with genocidal ideologies, simple-minded t...

We compared the distribution of historical bird and mammal species extinctions across genera and families with the distribution we would expect if these extinctions had occurred at random with respect to taxonomy. We then repeated the comparison for species listed in various categories of threat according to the 1996 Red List of the World Conservat...

Biotic mixing is becoming very wide-spread from human activities and is recognized as a potential threat to native biodiversity. In theory, species-area curves can be used to predict the ultimate biodiversity loss and homogenization occurring from faunal mixing. One way to test this empirically at coarse spatial and temporal scales is to quantify p...

This research sought to determine how the properties of a raw coal influence the degree to which it may be activated. Twelve coals were analyzed using thermogravimetry, mass spectroscopy, mercury porosimetry, nitrogen sorption and infrared spectroscopy, and activated in air, water-saturated helium and carbon dioxide. The greatest amounts of surface...

One of the ways that rare species may qualitatively differ from common species is through extinction (exit) biases. The set of rare species may be biased by the selective elimination of species that cannot persist at low abundances (Kunin and Gaston, 1993). This chapter reviews the large paleontological literature on extinction for evidence that so...

The appearance of faunal stability in the fossil record occurs because mainly abundant species are preserved and sampled. The paleontologist does not therefore observe many rare species with high ecological and evolutionary turnover rates. High ecological turnover refers to higher rates of local extinction and recolonization for rare species in the...

Documenting past environmental disturbances will provide a very incomplete explanation of extinctions until more data on intrinsic (e.g., phylogenetic) responses to disturbances are collected. Taxonomic selectivity can be used to infer phylogenetic inheritance of extinction-biasing traits. Selectivity patterns among higher taxa, such as between mam...