Erosion of heterogeneous rock drives diversification of Appalachian fishes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stokes, Maya F.; Kim, Daemin; Gallen, Sean F.; Benavides, Edgar; Keck, Benjamin P.; Wood, Julia; Goldberg, Samuel L.; Larsen, Isaac J.; Mollish, Jon Michael; Simmons, Jeffrey W.; Near, Thomas J.; Perron, J. Taylor
• 署名单位: Yale University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); State University System of Florida; Florida State University; Yale University; Colorado State University System; Colorado State University Fort Collins; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Massachusetts System; University of Massachusetts Amherst; Tennessee Valley Authority
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10270
• DOI: 10.1126/science.add9791
• 发表日期: 2023-05-26
• 页码: 855-859
• 关键词: southern appalachians; landscape evolution; species-diversity; CLIMATE-CHANGE; andean uplift; north-america; vicariance; speciation; dispersal; patterns

摘要

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 (Nothonotus chlorobranchius), 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 N. chlorobranchius 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.