Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Science. 2023 May 26;380(6647):855-859. doi: 10.1126/science.add9791. Epub 2023 May 25.
The high levels of biodiversity supported by mountains suggest a possible link between geologic processes and biological evolution. Freshwater biodiversity is high not only in tectonically active settings but also in tectonically quiescent montane regions such as the Appalachian Mountains. We show that erosion through different rock types drove allopatric divergence between lineages of the Greenfin Darter (), a fish species endemic to rivers draining metamorphic rocks in the Tennessee River basin in the United States. In the past, metamorphic rock preferred by was more widespread, but as erosion exposed other rock types, lineages of this species were progressively isolated in tributaries farther upstream, where metamorphic rock remained. Our results suggest a geologic mechanism for initiating allopatric diversification in mountains long after tectonic activity ceases.
山区拥有丰富的生物多样性，这表明地质过程与生物进化之间可能存在联系。不仅在构造活跃的环境中，而且在构造稳定的山地地区，如阿巴拉契亚山脉，淡水生物多样性也很高。我们的研究表明，通过不同类型的岩石的侵蚀作用导致了绿鳍鱼（）的谱系发生地理隔离，绿鳍鱼是一种生活在美国田纳西河流域变质岩河流中的特有鱼类。过去，更偏好的是更广泛分布的变质岩石，但随着侵蚀作用暴露出其他类型的岩石，这种鱼类的谱系逐渐在上游的支流中被孤立，而那里仍保留着变质岩石。我们的研究结果表明，在构造活动停止很久之后，山脉中发生地理隔离多样化的一种地质机制。
