Urbanization as a major cause of biotic homogenization

McKinney, Michael L.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2005.09.005

Cited by 2,999 publications

(2,312 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Given the reduction in native plant diversity and abundance in urbanized areas (Dreistadt et al 1990;Burton et al 2005;Williams et al 2005;Williams et al 2008;Isaacs et al 2009;Walker et al 2009), it would be surprising if predators were not sensitive to urbanization (McKinney 2006;Jones and Leather 2012;Otoshi et al 2015). Urban management techniques such as treading, bird feeding, mowing and pesticide application negatively impact predacious beetles and hemipterans (Morris and Rispin 1987;Helden and Leather 2004;Orros and Fellowes 2012;Jones and Leather 2012;Orros et al 2015;Bennett and Lovell 2014;Smith et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does urbanization explain differences in interactions between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies and mutualists?

Rocha

Fellowes

2018

Urban Ecosyst

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Urbanization can alter the composition of arthropod communities. However, little is known about how urbanization affects ecological interactions. Using experimental colonies of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae Scopoli reared on Vicia faba L, we asked if patterns of predator-prey, host-parasitoid and ant-aphid mutualisms varied along an urbanization gradient across a large town in southern England. We recorded the presence of naturally occurring predators, parasitoid wasps and mutualistic ants together with aphid abundance. We examined how biotic (green areas and plant richness) and abiotic features (impervious surfaces and distance to town center) affected (1) aphid colony size, (2) the likelihood of finding predators, mutualistic ants and aphid mummies (indicating the presence of parasitoids), and (3) how the interplay among these factors affected patterns of parasitoid attack, predator abundance, mutualistic interactions and aphid abundance. Aphid abundance was best explained by the number of mutualistic ants attending the colonies. Aphid predators responded negatively to both the proportion of impervious surfaces and to the number of mutualistic ants farming the colonies, and positively to aphid population size, whereas parasitized aphids were found in colonies with higher numbers of aphids and ants. The number of mutualistic ants attending was positively associated with aphid colony size and negatively with the number of aphid predators. Our findings suggest that for insect-natural enemy interactions, urbanization may affect some groups, while not influencing others, and that local effects (mutualists, host plant presence) will also be key determinants of how urban ecological communities are formed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does urbanization explain differences in interactions between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies and mutualists?

Rocha

Fellowes

2018

Urban Ecosyst

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“…Such similarities lead to urban growth and development patterns that converge toward a specific form (Seto and Fragkias 2005;Batty 2008). Ecological communities in cities are homogenized by the intentional and accidental shuffling of flora and fauna by commerce and through planting, which introduces a common pool of cosmopolitan species to similarly structured urban environments (McKinney 2006;Lososová and others 2012). Our data suggest that homogenization of urban environments extends beyond changes in land cover and species composition to include transformation of the land's shape, and indeed, whether it is even dry land at all.…”

Section: Converging Urban Hydroscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent Surface Water Distributions in U.S. Cities

et al. 2014

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Earth's surface is rapidly urbanizing, resulting in dramatic changes in the abundance, distribution and character of surface water features in urban landscapes. However, the scope and consequences of surface water redistribution at broad spatial scales are not well understood. We hypothesized that urbanization would lead to convergent surface water abundance and distribution: in other words, cities will gain or lose water such that they become more similar to each other than are their surrounding natural landscapes. Using a database of more than 1 million water bodies and 1 million km of streams, we compared the surface water of 100 US cities with their surrounding undeveloped land. We evaluated differences in areal (A WB ) and numeric densities (N WB ) of water bodies (lakes, wetlands, and so on), the morphological characteristics of water bodies (size), and the density (D C ) of surface flow channels (that is, streams and rivers). The variance of urban A WB , N WB , and D C across the 100 MSAs decreased, by 89, 25, and 71%, respectively, compared to undeveloped land. These data show that many cities are surface water poor relative to undeveloped land; however, in drier landscapes urbanization increases the occurrence of surface water. This convergence pattern strengthened with development intensity, such that high intensity urban development had an areal water body density 98% less than undeveloped lands. Urbanization appears to drive the convergence of

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“…Temperature is a key factor limiting survival, growth and reproduction in plants and many animals [11,12]. Hence, the survival of alien species introduced from habitats in warmer regions to new areas with colder conditions depend on locally heated 'islands', such as thermal effluents for aquatic species [13], urban areas [14] or anthropogenic habitats (especially buildings) [15]. Otherwise, ecological adaptation is needed; for example, the tropical seaweed Caulerpa taxifolia evolved tolerance for colder temperatures in aquaria in Europe before being released and spreading widely in the Mediterranean Sea [8].…”

Section: Offering New Opportunities For Introductionsmentioning

confidence: 99%