Abstract
AbstractChemical and mechanical properties of lithology exert a first‐order control on landscape evolution and biological colonization of substrate. To quantify the influence of lithology on topography, vegetation density, and animal biodiversity, I compile lithologic, topographic, climatic, and biological data sets for mountainous regions globally. I find significant variations in the topographic steepness of regions underlain by different lithologies that, accounting for tectonic uplift, likely reflect lithologic differences in erosional resistance. These relative differences in erodibility are similar across different climate zones. To isolate the effect of lithology on vegetation and animal biodiversity, I account for the heterogeneous lithologic distribution among climate zones. I show that siliciclastic, plutonic, and, for some biological variables, metamorphic rocks exhibit elevated values of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and tetrapod and amphibian species richness relative to carbonate rocks. These results likely reflect lithology‐related variation in soil nutrients and hydrology that promote or inhibit habitat suitability.
Highlights
The Earth's surface exposes a mosaic of bedrock lithologies, which span a large range of chemical and mechanical properties
To assess the influence of lithology on topography and biological parameters, I limit my analysis to erosion‐dominated landscapes, here defined as areas with ≥50 m of topographic relief within a 3 km radius (Figure 1a, for details see Text S1 in the supporting information)
Due to the sensitivity of river channels to bedrock erodibility, I utilize a global normalized river channel steepness map (Hilley et al, 2019), a measure of stream gradient normalized for its discharge, which is commonly approximated by upstream drainage area (Wobus et al, 2006). ksn can only be defined along stream channels; OTT
Summary
The Earth's surface exposes a mosaic of bedrock lithologies, which span a large range of chemical and mechanical properties. Lithologic characteristics control how landscapes respond to erosion and weathering and set boundary conditions for organisms living on the substrate. Carbonate rocks are more susceptible to drought as they commonly have higher surface water infiltration rates (Jiang et al, 2020), and, generally, their soils have lower nutrient content compared to other rock types (Porder & Ramachandran, 2013; Tyler, 1996). Other processes, such as dust deposition, affect nutrient input. Since these processes are more impactful in depositional landscapes, lithology is expected to be an important control on biological parameters in erosion‐dominated landscapes, such as mountains
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