Geological Chronicles of Existence: The Impact of Earth’s Geology on Evolution Over Half a Billion Years

Contemporary studies underscore a profound connection between the geological dynamics of Earth, such as plate tectonics and river systems, and the evolution of life, providing an extensive perspective on how life has been shaped over 500 million years by the planet’s physical transformations.

This research unveils a notable link between life’s evolution over the past 500 million years and geological events.

The geological timescale, encompassing the flow of rivers, formation of mountains and oceans, and the distribution of sedimentary nutrients, plays a pivotal role in shaping Earth’s biodiversity, according to recent findings published in Nature. These studies also indicate that the rate of biodiversity evolution mirrors the pace of plate tectonics, the gradual geological processes that form continents, mountains, and oceans.

Dr Tristan Salles from the School of Geosciences remarked, “This evolutionary rate is considerably slower than the current extinction rates driven by human activities.”

The research spans over 500 million years, starting from the post-Cambrian explosion era, which marked the genesis of major modern species.

Rivers: Earth’s Lifeblood

“Earth’s surface is akin to the living outer layer of our planet. Over geological periods, this surface changes, with rivers dividing the landscape into diverse habitats,” Dr Salles explained.

“Beyond shaping canyons and valleys, rivers act as the planet’s lifeblood, transferring nutrients and sediments from sources like mountains to destinations such as oceans. While our understanding of global biodiversity is expanding, it’s often through a limited lens,” Dr Salles continued. “Our approach integrates physical, chemical, and biological systems across half a billion years in five-million-year intervals, at a five-kilometer resolution. This offers an unparalleled insight into the drivers and timing of species diversity.”

A strong positive correlation, with a Pearson coefficient of 0.88, was found between sediment flux to the oceans and the diversity of marine animal families over the past 540 million years. This period includes the Cambrian explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), and the five major mass extinction events.

The 1994 discovery of the ancient Wollemi pine species in a secluded Blue Mountains valley near Sydney illustrates the comprehensive role of time, geology, hydrology, climate, and genetics in biodiversity and species survival.

Evolutionary Landscape Perspectives

The concept of landscapes influencing life’s trajectory on Earth dates back to Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and polymath. His work inspired Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, who first observed that species boundaries align with landscape discontinuities and gradients.

Dr Tristan Salles, based at the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences, noted, “Fast forwarding nearly two centuries, our grasp of how marine and terrestrial life diversity evolved over the past 540 million years continues to evolve.”

University of Sydney PhD student Beatriz Hadler Boggiani mentioned, “While biodiversity patterns are well-documented in fossils and genetic studies, certain aspects of this evolution, like the 100-million-year delay in plant expansion on continents followed by rapid marine life diversification, remain mysterious.”

A Groundbreaking Biodiversity Theory

A team of scientists from the University of Sydney, ISTerre at CNRS, and the University of Grenoble Alpes in France have proposed a unified theory linking life’s evolution in marine and terrestrial realms to sediment pulses influenced by ancient landscapes.

“As Earth’s surface evolution is determined by interactions between the geosphere and atmosphere, it records their cumulative impacts, providing a context for biodiversity evolution,” stated Dr Laurent Husson of the University of Grenoble Alpes.

The team devised a model that integrates various environmental aspects, simulating the cumulative effects of these forces at high resolution.

Dr Salles added, “We calibrated this physical memory etched in Earth’s surface with data from genetics, fossils, climate, hydrology, and tectonics to test our hypothesis.”

The team’s open-source scientific code, published in Science, enabled them to calibrate the simulation with contemporary data on landscape elevations, erosion rates, major rivers, and geological sediment transport.

Correlating Predictions with Paleontological Data

This methodology allowed the team to assess their predictions over 500 million years, using geochemical proxies and various tectonic and climatic models. They compared predicted sediment pulses with the evolution of life in both marine and terrestrial realms, as derived from paleontological data.

Manon Lorcery, a PhD student at the University of Grenoble, said, “In essence, we reconstructed Earth’s landforms over the Phanerozoic era, beginning 540 million years ago, and examined correlations between evolving river networks, sediment transfers, and the known distribution of marine and plant families.”

The analysis revealed a significant, positive correlation between predicted sediment flux into the oceans and marine biodiversity. For terrestrial environments, the model integrated sediment cover and landscape variability, demonstrating a strong link with plant diversification over the past 450 million

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Geological Biodiversity Evolution

More about Geological Biodiversity Evolution

• Understanding Earth’s Geological Impact on Biodiversity Evolution
• Exploring the Link Between Plate Tectonics and Biodiversity
• The Role of Rivers in Shaping Earth’s Biodiversity
• Insights into Biodiversity Evolution Over 500 Million Years
• The Relationship Between Geological Processes and Marine Biodiversity
• Influences of Historical Figures on Biodiversity Research
• A Unified Theory of Biodiversity Through Geological Timescales