Julian D Olden, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Published online: December 2008
DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020471
Biotic homogenization is the process by which species invasions and extinctions increase the genetic, taxonomic or functional similarity of two or more locations over a specified time interval. Biotic homogenization is now considered a distinct facet of the broader biodiversity crisis having significant ecological, evolutionary and social consequences.
Keywords: biological diversity; richness; invasive species; extinction
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Figure 1. Illustration of how species invasions and extinctions can cause either biotic homogenization or differentiation, depending on the identity of the species involved. A pair of communities for each scenario is illustrated where introduction events are represented by the arrow and appearance of a species icon. For simplicity, no species go extinct. Both scenarios share the same species pool (four native fish species, two nonnative fish species) and species richness. Community similarity is presented as a percentage.
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| References | |
| Cassey P, Lockwood JL, Blackburn TM and Olden JD (2007) Spatial scale and evolutionary history determine the degree of taxonomic homogenization across island bird assemblages. Diversity and Distributions 13: 458–466. | |
| Clavero M and García-Berthou E (2006) Homogenization dynamics and introduction routes of invasive freshwater fish in the Iberian Peninsula. Ecological Applications 16: 2313–2324. | |
| book Elton CS (1958) The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. London, UK: Methuen. | |
| Marchetti M, Lockwood JL and Light T (2006) Urbanization promotes invasion and extinction but not homogenization among California freshwater fishes. Biological Conservation 127: 310–318. | |
| McKinney ML and Lockwood JL (1999) Biotic homogenization: a few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 14: 450–453. | |
| Olden JD (2006) Biotic homogenization: a new research agenda for conservation biogeography. Journal of Biogeography 33: 2027–2039. | |
| Olden JD, Douglas ME and Douglas MR (2005) The human dimensions of biotic homogenization. Conservation Biology 19: 2036–2038. | |
| Olden JD, Kennard MJ and Pusey BJ (2008) Species invasions and the changing biogeography of Australian freshwater fishes. Global Ecology and Biogeography 17: 25–37. | |
| Olden JD and Poff NL (2003) Toward a mechanistic understanding and prediction of biotic homogenization. American Naturalist 162: 442–460. | |
| Olden JD, Poff NL, Douglas MR, Douglas ME and Fausch KD (2004) Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19: 18–24. | |
| Rahel FJ (2000) Homogenization of fish faunas across the United States. Science 288: 854–856. | |
| Rooney TP, Wiegmann SM, Rogers DA and Waller DM (2004) Biotic impoverishment and homogenization in unfragmented forest understory communities. Conservation Biology 18: 787–798. | |
| Smart SM, Thompson K, Marrs RH et al. (2006) Biotic homogenization and changes in species diversity across human-modified ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 273: 2659–2665. | |
| Further Reading | |
| Castro SA, Muñoz M and Jaksic FM (2007) Transit towards floristic homogenization on oceanic islands in the south-eastern Pacific: comparing pre-European and current floras. Journal of Biogeography 34: 213–222. | |
| Devictor V, Julliard R, Couvet D, Lee A and Jiguet F (2007) Functional homogenization of urbanization on bird communities. Conservation Biology 21: 741–751. | |
| LaSorte FA, McKinney ML and Pyšek P (2007) Compositional similarity among urban floras within and across continents: biographical consequences of human-mediated biotic interchange. Global Change Biology 13: 913–921. | |
| Leprieur F, Beauchard O, Huguency B, Grenouillet G and Brosse S (2008) Null model of biotic homogenization: a test with the European freshwater fish fauna. Diversity and Distributions 14: 291–300. | |
| Olden JD and Rooney TP (2006) On defining and quantifying biotic homogenization. Global Ecology and Biogeography 15: 113–120. | |
| Poff NL, Olden JD, Merritt DM and Pepin DM (2007) Homogenization of regional river dynamics by dams and global biodiversity implications. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104: 5732–5737. | |
| Qian H and Ricklefs RE (2006) The role of exotic species in homogenizing the North American flora. Ecology Letters 9: 1293–1298. | |
| Rahel FJ (2002) Homogenization of freshwater faunas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33: 291–315. | |
| Schulte LA, Mladenoff DJ, Crow TR, Merrick LC and Cleland DT (2007) Homogenization of northern U.S. Great Lakes forests due to land use. Landscape Ecology 22: 1089–1103. | |
| Van Turnhout CAM, Foppen RPB, Leuven RSEW, Siepel H and Esselink H (2007) Scale-dependent homogenization: changes in breeding bird diversity in the Netherlands over a 25-year period. Biological Conservation 134: 505–516. | |
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