Tectonic processes continuously reshape Earth’s surface, actively forming mountains, basins and modifying drainage networks. Through uplift, deformation and erosion, tectonics generates spatial and temporal variation in topography, substrate, soils and hydrology. These changes can influence the distribution and connectivity of habitats, create or remove dispersal barriers, generate refugia and influence patterns of species persistence, turnover, adaptation and diversification.
Despite increasing recognition of these links, the mechanisms and timescales through which tectonic and landscape processes influence biodiversity and their feedbacks remain poorly constrained. This session aims to bridge this gap by bringing together tectonics, geomorphology, geochronology, biogeography, ecology and evolutionary biology to explore these connections across spatial and temporal scales.
We invite contributions that explore how tectonic and surface processes influence landscape heterogeneity, habitat connectivity, environmental gradients, species distributions and diversification, and / or how biological processes affect Earth dynamics. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary studies combining geological/geographical and biological observations, models or datasets to identify and quantify the processes linking Earth dynamics, landscape evolution and biodiversity.