Academics

Faculty & Staff

Michael Rex, PhD

  • Professor of Biology -- Deep-Sea Ecology; Biogeography
  • Telephone: (617) 287-6678
  • Office Location: Wheatley Hall,03,00027

Areas of Expertise

Deep-Sea Ecology, Biogeography

Degrees

PhD, Harvard University, 1972
AB, Indiana University, 1968

Professional Publications & Contributions

  • McClain, C.R., N.A. Johnson and M.A. Rex. 2004. Morphological disparity as a biodiversity metric in lower bathyal and abyssal gastropod assemblages. Evolution 58: 338-348.
  • Rex, M.A., C.R. McClain, N.A. Johnson, R.J. Etter. J.A. Allen, P. Bouchet and A. Waren. 2005. A source-sink hypothesis for abyssal biodiversity. American Naturalist 165:163-178.
  • Rex, M.A., J.A. Crame, C.T. Stuart and A. Clarke. 2005 Large-scale biogeographic patterns in marine mollusks: A confluence of history and productivity? Ecology 86: 2288-2297.
  • McClain, C.R., M.A. Rex and R. Jabbour. 2005. Deconstructing bathymetric body size patterns in deep-sea gastropods. Marine Ecology Progress Series 297: 181-187.
  • Etter, R.J., M.A. Rex, M.R. Chase and J. M. Quattro. 2005. Population differentiation decreases with depth in deep-sea bivalves. Evolution 59: 1497-1491.
  • Zardus, J.D., R.J. Etter, M.R. Chase, M.A. Rex and E.E. Boyle. 2006. Bathymetric and geographic population structure in the pan-Atlantic deep-sea bivalve Deminucula atacellana (Schenck 1939). Molecular Ecology 15: 639-651.
  • Rex, M.A., R.J. Etter, J.S. Morris, J. Crouse, C.R. McClain, N.A. Johnson, C. T. Stuart, J.W. Deming, R. Thies and R. Avery. 2006. Global bathymetric patterns of standing stock and body size in the deep-sea benthos. Marine Ecology Progress Series 317: 1-8.
  • Johnson, N.A., J.W. Campbell, T. S. Moore, M.A. Rex, R. J. Etter, C.R. McClain and M.D. Dowell. 2007. The relationship between standing stock of deep-sea macrobenthos and surface production in the western North Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research I 54:1350-1360.
  • Stuart, C.T., P. Martinez Arbizu, C.R. Smith, T. Molodtsova, A. Brandt, R.J. Etter, E. Escobar-Briones, M.-C. Fabri and M.A. Rex. 2008. CeDAMar global database of abyssal biological sampling. Aquatic Biology 4: 143-145.
  • Stuart, C.T. and M.A. Rex. 2009. Bathymetric patterns of deep-sea gastropod species diversity in 10 basins of the Atlantic Ocean and Norwegian Sea. Marine Ecology 30: 164-180.
  • McClain, C.R., M.A.Rex and R.J. Etter. 2009. Patterns in deep-sea macroecology. In J.D. Witman and K.Roy, editors, Marine Macroecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  • Rex, M.A. and R.J. Etter. 2010. Deep-Sea Biodiversity: Pattern and Scale. Harvard University Press.
  • Ebbe, B., D. Billett, A. Brandt. K. Ellingsen, A. Glover, S. Keller, M. Maluytina, P. Martinez, T. Molodtsova, M. Rex, C.Smith and A. Tselepides. 2010. Diversity of abyssal marine life. Pages 139-160, In A.D. McIntyre, editor, Life in the World’s Oceans: Diversity, Distribution and Abundance. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, UK.
  • Rex, M.A., C.T. Stuart, R.J. Etter and C.R. McClain. 2010. Biogeography of the deep-sea gastropod Oocorys sulcata Fischer, 1883. Journal of Conchology 40:287-290.
  • Wei, C-L., G.T. Rowe, E. Escobar-Briones, A. Boetius, T. Soltwedel, J. Caley, Y. Soliman, F. Huettmann, F. Qu, Z. Yu, R. Pitcher, R.L. Haedrich, M.K. Wicksten, M.A. Rex, J.G. Baguley, J. Sharma, R. Danovaro, I.R. MacDonald, C.C. Nunnally, J.W. Deming, P. Montagna, M. Levesque, J.M. Weslawski, M. Wlodarska-Kowalczuk, B.S. Ingole, B.J. Bett, A. Yool, B.A. Bluhm, K. Iken, B.E. Narayanaswamy. 2010. Global patterns and predictions of seafloor biomass using random forests. PLoS ONE 5:1-15, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015323.
  • Tittensor, D.P., M.A. Rex, C.T. Stuart, C.R. McClain and C.R. Smith. 2011. Species-energy relationships in deep-sea molluscs. Biology Letters (published online 23 March 2011) doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2010.1174.
  • Stuart, C.T., M.A. Rex, D.P. Tittensor and C.R. Smith. 2011. Elevated species diversity in abyssal gastropods off Newfoundland: The potential role of food supply. Marine Biodiversity 41:537- 544.
  • Rex, M.A., J.D. Chaytor and C.T. Stuart. 2012. Late Pleistocene Colus stimpsoni (Morch, 1868) from a seabed core (2520m) in the western North Atlantic. The Nautilus 126: 86-87.
  • Brault, S., C.T. Stuart, M.C. Wagstaff and M.A. Rex. 2012. Geographic evidence for source-sink dynamics in deep-sea gastropods of the eastern North Atlantic: An approach using nested analysis. Global Ecology and Biogeography. In press.

Additional Information

Current Position
Professor
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston

Associate Editor
     Global Ecology and Biogeography
     Marine Biodiversity

Research Interests
My research is centered on the ecology and evolution of deep-sea benthic communities. It includes analyses of bathymetric and global-scale patterns of biodiversity and their causes. We are using satellite imagery to examine the relationship of surface production to community structure in the deep sea at different temporal and spatial scales. Geographic variation in body size of mollusks is being explored to study adaptation to the deep-sea environment. Multivariate analyses of shell architecture and mitochondrial DNA are being employed to study patterns of population differentiation in deep-sea mollusks. Adaptive radiation and taxon cycles are being investigated by documenting patterns of taxonomic diversity. A major long-term research goal is to synthesize patterns of distribution, geographic variation, taxonomic composition and life histories to formulate a model of evolution in deep-sea invertebrates.

Current Grant Support
Reproductive and Geographic Evidence for Source-Sink Dynamics in Deep-Sea Communities. The National Science Foundation. Biological Oceanography. (OCE-1129612) funded 9/1/11- 9/1/14, $145, 637, M.A. Rex (PI), S. Brault (Co-PI), C.T. Stuart (Co-PI).