Abstract
Drainage divides separate Earth’s surface into individual river basins. Divide migration impacts the evolution of landforms, regional climate, ecosystems and biodiversity. In this Review, we assess the processes and dynamics of divide migration and offer insights into the impact on climate and biodiversity. Drainage divides are not static: they can move through the processes of gradual migration that is continuous in unsteady landscapes, or sudden through infrequent river capture events. Divides tend to move in the direction of slower erosion, faster uplift or with horizontal tectonic advection, with rates typically ranging between 0.001 and 10 mm year−1, and a global average of 0.6 mm year−1. Evidence of river capture, such as a sharp change in flow direction with an upstream waterfall, can constrain divide migration history. Topographic metrics, such as cross-divide steepness, can predict the migration of drainage divides towards directions with a lower topographic steepness. Divide migration influences the spatial distribution of regional precipitation, temperature and topographic connectivity between species, thereby affecting biodiversity. For example, freshwater fish can migrate into a new drainage basin through river capture, potentially increasing the species richness. Future research should couple advanced landscape evolution models and observations from field and remote sensing to better investigate divide migration dynamics.
Key points
-
Drainage divides can move through gradual migration and occasional river capture. Drainage divides tend to move in the direction of slower erosion, faster uplift or with horizontal tectonic advection.
-
Tectonics and erosion jointly influence divide dynamics and mountain asymmetry. Mountain asymmetry can increase with tectonic convergence velocity, whereas climate can both increase and decrease mountain asymmetry.
-
Evidence of river capture can decode divide motion history. Cross-divide steepness metrics and χ-value (drainage-area normalized distance along a river channel) can predict short-term and long-term divide stability, respectively.
-
Main drainage divide position of mountains affects spatial patterns of rainfall via orographic effect and temperature through altitude–temperature relationship, thereby influencing the richness and type of species.
-
River capture events can promote species richness in expanding basins, but they can decrease biodiversity in shrinking catchments. However, overall diversity tends to increase owing to vicariant speciation in expanding catchments.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$99.00 per year
only $8.25 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dahlquist, M. P., West, A. J. & Li, G. Landslide-driven drainage divide migration. Geology 46, 403–406 (2018).
Scheingross, J. S., Limaye, A. B., McCoy, S. W. & Whittaker, A. C. The shaping of erosional landscapes by internal dynamics. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 1, 661–676 (2020).
Stokes, M. F. et al. The erosional signature of drainage divide motion along the Blue Ridge Escarpment. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 128, e2022JF006757 (2023).
Willett, S. D., McCoy, S. W. & Beeson, H. W. Transience of the North American High Plains landscape and its impact on surface water. Nature 561, 528–532 (2018).
Salles, T. et al. Hundred million years of landscape dynamics from catchment to global scale. Science 379, 918–923 (2023).
Battin, T. J. et al. River ecosystem metabolism and carbon biogeochemistry in a changing world. Nature 613, 449–459 (2023).
Craw, D., Upton, P., Burridge, C. P., Wallis, G. P. & Waters, J. M. Rapid biological speciation driven by tectonic evolution in New Zealand. Nat. Geosci. 9, 140–144 (2015).
Deiner, K., Fronhofer, E. A., Machler, E., Walser, J. C. & Altermatt, F. Environmental DNA reveals that rivers are conveyer belts of biodiversity information. Nat. Commun. 7, 12544 (2016).
Antonelli, A. et al. Geological and climatic influences on mountain biodiversity. Nat. Geosci. 11, 718–725 (2018).
Musher, L. J. et al. River network rearrangements promote speciation in lowland Amazonian birds. Sci. Adv. 8, eabn1099 (2022).
Fjeldså, J., Bowie, R. C. K. & Rahbek, C. The role of mountain ranges in the diversification of birds. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 43, 249–265 (2012).
Rahbek, C. et al. Building mountain biodiversity: geological and evolutionary processes. Science 365, 1114–1119 (2019).
Salles, T. et al. Quaternary landscape dynamics boosted species dispersal across Southeast Asia. Commun. Earth Environ. 2, 240 (2021).
Val, P., Lyons, N. J., Gasparini, N., Willenbring, J. K. & Albert, J. S. Landscape evolution as a diversification driver in freshwater fishes. Front. Ecol. Evol. 9, 788328 (2022).
Cassemiro, F. A. S. et al. Landscape dynamics and diversification of the megadiverse South American freshwater fish fauna. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 120, e2211974120 (2023).
Hu, K. et al. Covariation of cross-divide differences in denudation rate and χ: implications for drainage basin reorganization in the Qilian Shan, northeast Tibet. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 562, 116812 (2021).
Wang, Y., Willett, S. D., Wu, D., Haghipour, N. & Christl, M. Retreat of the great escarpment of Madagascar from geomorphic analysis and cosmogenic 10Be concentrations. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 22, e2021GC009979 (2021).
Davis, D. M. A river-pirate. Science 13, 108–109 (1889).
Bonnet, S. Shrinking and splitting of drainage basins in orogenic landscapes from the migration of the main drainage divide. Nat. Geosci. 2, 766–771 (2009).
Habousha, K., Goren, L., Nativ, R. & Gruber, C. Plan‐form evolution of drainage basins in response to tectonic changes: insights from experimental and numerical landscapes. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 128, e2022JF006876 (2023).
He, C. et al. Landscape response to normal fault linkage: insights from numerical modeling. Geomorphology 388, 107796 (2021).
Whipple, K. X., Forte, A. M., DiBiase, R. A., Gasparini, N. M. & Ouimet, W. B. Timescales of landscape response to divide migration and drainage capture: implications for the role of divide mobility in landscape evolution. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 122, 248–273 (2017).
Goren, L., Willett, S. D., Herman, F. & Braun, J. Coupled numerical-analytical approach to landscape evolution modeling. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 39, 522–545 (2014).
Willett, S. D., Slingerland, R. & Hovius, N. Uplift, shortening, and steady state topography in active mountain belts. Am. J. Sci. 301, 455–485 (2001).
He, C. et al. Constraining tectonic uplift and advection from the main drainage divide of a mountain belt. Nat. Commun. 12, 544 (2021).
Lanari, R., Reitano, R., Faccenna, C., Agostinetti, N. P. & Ballato, P. Surface and crustal response to deep subduction dynamics: insights from the Apennines, Italy. Tectonics 42, e2022TC007461 (2023).
Hergarten, S. & Robl, J. The linear feedback precipitation model (LFPM 1.0) — a simple and efficient model for orographic precipitation in the context of landform evolution modeling. Geosci. Model Dev. 15, 2063–2084 (2022).
Bernard, T., Sinclair, H. D., Gailleton, B., Mudd, S. M. & Ford, M. Lithological control on the post-orogenic topography and erosion history of the Pyrenees. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 518, 53–66 (2019).
Seagren, E. G. & Schoenbohm, L. M. Base level and lithologic control of drainage reorganization in the Sierra de las Planchadas, NW Argentina. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 124, 1516–1539 (2019).
Gilbert, G. K. Report on the Geology of the Henry Mountains (Government Printing Office, 1877).
Val, P. et al. Erosion of an active fault scarp leads to drainage capture in the Amazon region, Brazil. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 39, 1062–1074 (2014).
Willett, S. D., McCoy, S. W., Perron, J. T., Goren, L. & Chen, C. Y. Dynamic reorganization of river basins. Science 343, 1248765 (2014).
Liu, Z. et al. Quantitative analysis of tectonic geomorphology research based on Web of Science from 1981 to 2021. Remote Sens. 14, 5227 (2022).
Forte, A. M. & Whipple, K. X. Criteria and tools for determining drainage divide stability. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 493, 102–117 (2018).
Fan, N. et al. Abrupt drainage basin reorganization following a Pleistocene river capture. Nat. Commun. 9, 3756 (2018).
Schildgen, T. F. et al. Quantifying drainage-divide migration from orographic rainfall over geologic timescales: Sierra de Aconquija, southern Central Andes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 579, 117345 (2022).
Rico, C. N., Hoagstrom, C. W., Elías, D. J., McMahan, C. D. & Matamoros, W. A. Biotic regionalization of freshwater fishes in Northern Middle America highlights high beta diversity created by prominent biogeographic barriers. Front. Biogeogr. 14, e58095 (2022).
de Lavaissière, L., Bonnet, S., Guyez, A. & Davy, P. Autogenic knickpoints in laboratory landscape experiments. Earth Surf. Dyn. 10, 229–246 (2022).
O’Hara, D., Karlstrom, L. & Roering, J. J. Distributed landscape response to localized uplift and the fragility of steady states. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 506, 243–254 (2019).
Beeson, H. W., McCoy, S. W. & Keen-Zebert, A. Geometric disequilibrium of river basins produces long-lived transient landscapes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 475, 34–43 (2017).
Pérez-Consuegra, N. et al. Neogene variations in slab geometry drive topographic change and drainage reorganization in the Northern Andes of Colombia. Glob. Planet. Chang. 206, 103641 (2021).
Seagren, E. G. & Schoenbohm, L. M. Drainage reorganization across the Puna Plateau margin (NW Argentina): implications for the preservation of orogenic plateaus. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 126, e2021JF006147 (2021).
Bishop, P. Drainage rearrangement by river capture, beheading and diversion. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 19, 449–473 (1995).
Shelef, E. & Goren, L. The rate and extent of wind-gap migration regulated by tributary confluences and avulsions. Earth Surf. Dyn. 9, 687–700 (2021).
Harel, E., Goren, L., Crouvi, O., Ginat, H. & Shelef, E. Drainage reorganization induces deviations in the scaling between valley width and drainage area. Earth Surf. Dyn. 10, 875–894 (2022).
Harel, E., Goren, L., Shelef, E. & Ginat, H. Drainage reversal toward cliffs induced by lateral lithologic differences. Geology 47, 928–932 (2019).
Su, Q., Wang, X., Lu, H., Zhang, H. & Xie, H. River piracy and its geomorphic effects in the northern Qilian Shan, northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 601, 111147 (2022).
Wang, X. et al. Did the modern Yellow River form at the Mid-Pleistocene transition? Sci. Bull. 67, 1603–1610 (2022).
Miller, K. G. et al. The Phanerozoic record of global sea-level change. Science 310, 1293–1298 (2005).
Stokes, M. F., Goldberg, S. L. & Perron, J. T. Ongoing river capture in the Amazon. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 5545–5552 (2018).
Craddock, W. H. et al. Rapid fluvial incision along the Yellow River during headward basin integration. Nat. Geosci. 3, 209–213 (2010).
Geurts, A. H. et al. Drainage integration and sediment dispersal in active continental rifts: a numerical modelling study of the central Italian Apennines. Basin Res. 30, 965–989 (2018).
Hilgendorf, Z., Wells, G., Larson, P. H., Millett, J. & Kohout, M. From basins to rivers: understanding the revitalization and significance of top-down drainage integration mechanisms in drainage basin evolution. Geomorphology 352, 107020 (2020).
Tejedor, A., Singh, A., Zaliapin, I., Densmore, A. L. & Foufoula-Georgiou, E. Scale-dependent erosional patterns in steady-state and transient-state landscapes. Sci. Adv. 3, e1701683 (2017).
Bahadori, A. et al. Coupled influence of tectonics, climate, and surface processes on landscape evolution in southwestern North America. Nat. Commun. 13, 4437 (2022).
Wolf, S. G., Huismans, R. S., Braun, J. & Yuan, X. Topography of mountain belts controlled by rheology and surface processes. Nature 606, 516–521 (2022).
Su, Q., Wang, X., Lu, H. & Xie, H. Dynamic divide migration as a response to asymmetric uplift: an example from the Zhongtiao Shan, north China. Remote Sens. 12, 4188 (2020).
Zhou, C., Tan, X., Liu, Y. & Shi, F. A cross-divide contrast index (C) for assessing controls on the main drainage divide stability of a mountain belt. Geomorphology 398, 108071 (2022).
Willett, S. D. Orogeny and orography: the effects of erosion on the structure of mountain belts. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 104, 28957–28981 (1999).
Willett, S. D. & Brandon, M. T. On steady states in mountain belts. Geology 30, 175–178 (2002).
Castelltort, S. et al. River drainage patterns in the New Zealand Alps primarily controlled by plate tectonic strain. Nat. Geosci. 5, 744–748 (2012).
Eizenhöfer, P. R., McQuarrie, N., Shelef, E. & Ehlers, T. A. Landscape response to lateral advection in convergent orogens over geologic time scales. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 124, 2056–2078 (2019).
Brune, S. et al. Geodynamics of continental rift initiation and evolution. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 4, 235–253 (2023).
Mitchell, N. & Forte, A. M. Tectonic advection of contacts enhances landscape transience. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 48, 1450–1469 (2023).
Reitano, R. et al. Sediment recycling and the evolution of analog orogenic wedges. Tectonics 41, e2021TC006951 (2022).
Chen, Y. et al. Evolution of eastern Tibetan river systems is driven by the indentation of India. Commun. Earth Environ. 2, 256 (2021).
Hoskins, A. M., Attal, M., Mudd, S. M. & Castillo, M. Topographic response to horizontal advection in normal fault‐bound mountain ranges. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 128, e2023JF007126 (2023).
Leonard, J. S., Whipple, K. X. & Heimsath, A. M. Isolating climatic, tectonic, and lithologic controls on mountain landscape evolution. Sci. Adv. 9, eadd8915 (2023).
Herman, F., De Doncker, F., Delaney, I., Prasicek, G. & Koppes, M. The impact of glaciers on mountain erosion. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 2, 422–435 (2021).
Giachetta, E., Refice, A., Capolongo, D., Gasparini, N. M. & Pazzaglia, F. J. Orogen‐scale drainage network evolution and response to erodibility changes: insights from numerical experiments. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 39, 1259–1268 (2014).
Zondervan, J. R., Stokes, M., Boulton, S. J., Telfer, M. W. & Mather, A. E. Rock strength and structural controls on fluvial erodibility: implications for drainage divide mobility in a collisional mountain belt. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 538, 116221 (2020).
Bernard, T., Sinclair, H. D., Gailleton, B. & Fox, M. Formation of longitudinal river valleys and the fixing of drainage divides in response to exhumation of crystalline basement. Geophys. Res. Lett. 48, e2020GL092210 (2021).
Perron, J. T. Climate and the pace of erosional landscape evolution. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 45, 561–591 (2017).
Lai, J. & Huppert, K. Asymmetric glaciation, divide migration, and postglacial fluvial response times in the Qilian Shan. Geology 51, 860–864 (2023).
Starke, J., Ehlers, T. A. & Schaller, M. Latitudinal effect of vegetation on erosion rates identified along western South America. Science 367, 1358–1361 (2020).
Perron, J. T., Richardson, P. W., Ferrier, K. L. & Lapotre, M. The root of branching river networks. Nature 492, 100–103 (2012).
Braun, J., Herman, F. & Batt, G. Kinematic strain localization. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 300, 197–204 (2010).
He, C. et al. Divide migration in response to asymmetric uplift: insights from the Wula Shan horst, North China. Geomorphology 339, 44–57 (2019).
Shi, F., Tan, X., Zhou, C. & Liu, Y. Impact of asymmetric uplift on mountain asymmetry: analytical solution, numerical modeling, and natural examples. Geomorphology 389, 107862 (2021).
Perron, J. T. & Fagherazzi, S. The legacy of initial conditions in landscape evolution. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 37, 52–63 (2012).
Wang, Y. & Willett, S. D. Escarpment retreat rates derived from detrital cosmogenic nuclide concentrations. Earth Surf. Dyn. 9, 1301–1322 (2021).
Wang, Y., Willett, S. D. & Wu, D. The role of weathering on morphology and rates of escarpment retreat of the rift margin of Madagascar. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 128, e2022JF007001 (2023).
Schwanghart, W. & Scherler, D. Divide mobility controls knickpoint migration on the Roan Plateau (Colorado, USA). Geology 48, 698–702 (2020).
Braun, J. A review of numerical modeling studies of passive margin escarpments leading to a new analytical expression for the rate of escarpment migration velocity. Gondwana Res. 53, 209–224 (2018).
Zhou, C. et al. Ongoing westward migration of drainage divides in eastern Tibet, quantified from topographic analysis. Geomorphology 402, 108123 (2022).
Ye, Y., Tan, X. & Zhou, C. Initial topography matters in drainage divide migration analysis: insights from numerical simulations and natural examples. Geomorphology 409, 108266 (2022).
Balco, G., Stone, J. O., Lifton, N. A. & Dunai, T. J. A complete and easily accessible means of calculating surface exposure ages or erosion rates from 10Be and 26Al measurements. Quat. Geochronol. 3, 174–195 (2008).
Ehlers, T. A., Farley, K. A., Rusmore, M. E. & Woodsworth, G. J. Apatite (U-Th)/He signal of large-magnitude accelerated glacial erosion, southwest British Columbia. Geology 34, 765–768 (2006).
Linari, C. L. et al. Rates of erosion and landscape change along the Blue Ridge escarpment, southern Appalachian Mountains, estimated from in situ cosmogenic 10Be. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 42, 928–940 (2017).
Godard, V., Dosseto, A., Fleury, J., Bellier, O. & Siame, L. Transient landscape dynamics across the Southeastern Australian Escarpment. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 506, 397–406 (2019).
Struth, L., Teixell, A., Owen, L. A. & Babault, J. Plateau reduction by drainage divide migration in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia defined by morphometry and 10Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 42, 1155–1170 (2017).
Vacherat, A., Bonnet, S. & Mouthereau, F. Drainage reorganization and divide migration induced by the excavation of the Ebro basin (NE Spain). Earth Surf. Dyn. 6, 369–387 (2018).
Struth, L., Giachetta, E., Willett, S. D., Owen, L. A. & Tesón, E. Quaternary drainage network reorganization in the Colombian Eastern Cordillera plateau. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 45, 1789–1804 (2020).
Prince, P. S., Spotila, J. A. & Henika, W. S. Stream capture as driver of transient landscape evolution in a tectonically quiescent setting. Geology 39, 823–826 (2011).
Burridge, C. P., Craw, D. & Waters, J. M. River capture, range expansion, and cladogenesis: the genetic signature of freshwater vicariance. Evolution 60, 1038–1049 (2007).
Bossu, C. M., Beaulieu, J. M., Ceas, P. A. & Near, T. J. Explicit tests of palaeodrainage connections of southeastern North America and the historical biogeography of orangethroat darters (Percidae: Etheostoma: Ceasia). Mol. Ecol. 22, 5397–5417 (2013).
Stokes, M. F. & Perron, J. T. Modeling the evolution of aquatic organisms in dynamic river basins. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 125, e2020JF005652 (2020).
Li, X. et al. Genetic memory of fishes on river development in Himalayas. Quat. Sci. 43, 819–837 (2023).
Fan, N. et al. Timing of river capture in major Yangtze River tributaries: insights from sediment provenance and morphometric indices. Geomorphology 392, 107915 (2021).
Lima, S. M. Q. et al. Headwater capture evidenced by paleo-rivers reconstruction and population genetic structure of the armored catfish (Pareiorhaphis garbei) in the Serra do Mar Mountains of southeastern Brazil. Front. Genet. 8, 199 (2017).
Shugar, D. H. et al. River piracy and drainage basin reorganization led by climate-driven glacier retreat. Nat. Geosci. 10, 370–375 (2017).
Chen, C. H., Shyu, J. B. H., Willett, S. D. & Chen, C. Y. Structural control on drainage pattern development of the western Taiwan orogenic wedge. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 48, 1830–1844 (2023).
Rodrigues Salgado, A. A., Ribeiro Marent, B. & Paixão, R. W. Large rivers, slow drainage rearrangements: the ongoing fluvial piracy of a major river by its tributary in the Branco River basin — northern Amazon. J. South Am. Earth Sci. 112, 103598 (2021).
Simon-Labric, T. et al. Low-temperature thermochronologic signature of range-divide migration and breaching in the North Cascades. Lithosphere 6, 473–482 (2014).
Mark, C., Cogné, N. & Chew, D. Tracking exhumation and drainage divide migration of the Western Alps: a test of the apatite U-Pb thermochronometer as a detrital provenance tool. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 128, 1439–1460 (2016).
Perron, J. T. & Royden, L. An integral approach to bedrock river profile analysis. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 38, 570–576 (2013).
Winterberg, S. & Willett, S. D. Greater Alpine river network evolution, interpretations based on novel drainage analysis. Swiss J. Geosci. 112, 3–22 (2019).
Diercks, M.-L., Stanek, K., Domínguez-Gonzalez, L. & Ehling, B. Quaternary landscape evolution and tectonics in Central Germany — a case study of the Harz. Geomorphology 388, 107794 (2021).
Gailleton, B., Mudd, S. M., Clubb, F. J., Grieve, S. W. D. & Hurst, M. D. Impact of changing concavity indices on channel steepness and divide migration metrics. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 126, e2020JF006060 (2021).
DeLong, S. B., Hilley, G. E., Prentice, C. S., Crosby, C. J. & Yokelson, I. N. Geomorphology, denudation rates, and stream channel profiles reveal patterns of mountain building adjacent to the San Andreas Fault in northern California, USA. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 129, 732–749 (2017).
García-Delgado, H. & Velandia, F. Tectonic geomorphology of the Serranía de San Lucas (central Cordillera): regional implications for active tectonics and drainage rearrangement in the northern Andes. Geomorphology 349, 106914 (2020).
He, C. et al. Geomorphological signatures of the evolution of active normal faults along the Langshan Mountains, North China. Geodin. Acta 30, 163–182 (2018).
Wahyudi, D. R., Sinclair, H. D. & Mudd, S. M. Progressive evolution of thrust fold topography in the frontal Himalaya. Geomorphology 384, 107717 (2021).
Amine, A., El Ouardi, H., Zebari, M. & El Makrini, H. Active tectonics in the Moulay Idriss Massif (south Rifian Ridges, NW Morocco): new insights from geomorphic indices and drainage pattern analysis. J. Afr. Earth Sci. 167, 103833 (2020).
Wu, Y., Yang, R., He, C. & He, J. Caution on determining divide migration from cross‐divide contrast in χ. Geol. J. 57, 4090–4098 (2022).
Zhou, C. & Tan, X. Quantifying the influence of asymmetric uplift, base level elevation, and erodibility on cross-divide χ difference. Geomorphology 427, 108634 (2023).
Pai, M. O. D., Salgado, A. A. R., de Sordi, M. V., de Carvalho Junior, O. A. & de Paula, E. V. Comparing morphological investigation with χ index and Gilbert metrics for analysis of drainage rearrangement and divide migration in inland plateaus. Geomorphology 423, 108554 (2023).
Scherler, D. & Schwanghart, W. Drainage divide networks — part 1: identification and ordering in digital elevation models. Earth Surf. Dynam. 8, 245–259 (2020).
Alves, F. C., Stokes, M., Boulton, S. J., de Fátima Rossetti, D. & de Morisson Valeriano, M. Post-rift geomorphological evolution of a passive continental margin (Paraíba region, northeastern Brazil): insights from river profile and drainage divide analysis. Geomorphology 414, 108384 (2022).
Schwanghart, W. & Scherler, D. Short communication: TopoToolbox 2 — MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis and modeling in Earth surface sciences. Earth Surf. Dyn. 2, 1–7 (2014).
Insel, N., Poulsen, C. J. & Ehlers, T. A. Influence of the Andes Mountains on South American moisture transport, convection, and precipitation. Clim. Dyn. 35, 1477–1492 (2009).
Renny, M., Acosta, M. C. & Sérsic, A. N. Ancient climate changes and Andes uplift, rather than Last Glacial Maximum, affected distribution and genetic diversity patterns of the southernmost mycoheterotrophic plant Arachnitis uniflora Phil. (Corsiaceae). Glob. Planet. Chang. 208, 103701 (2022).
Boos, W. R. & Pascale, S. Mechanical forcing of the North American monsoon by orography. Nature 599, 611–615 (2021).
Pepin, N. C. et al. Climate changes and their elevational patterns in the mountains of the world. Rev. Geophys. 60, e2020RG000730 (2022).
Mulch, A., Uba, C. E., Strecker, M. R., Schoenberg, R. & Chamberlain, C. P. Late Miocene climate variability and surface elevation in the Central Andes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 290, 173–182 (2010).
Roe, G. H. Orographic precipitation. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 33, 645–671 (2005).
Fisher, G. B. et al. Milankovitch-paced erosion in the southern Central Andes. Nat. Commun. 14, 424 (2023).
Minder, J. R., Mote, P. W. & Lundquist, J. D. Surface temperature lapse rates over complex terrain: lessons from the Cascade Mountains. J. Geophys. Res. 115, D14122 (2010).
Hrudya, P. H., Varikoden, H. & Vishnu, R. A review on the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, variability and its association with ENSO and IOD. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 133, 1–14 (2020).
Jury, M. R. Summer climate of Madagascar and monsoon pulsing of its vortex. Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 128, 117–129 (2015).
Arivelo, T. A. & Lin, Y.-L. Climatology of heavy orographic rainfall induced by tropical cyclones over Madagascar: from synoptic to mesoscale perspectives. Earth Sci. Res. 5, 132–147 (2016).
Rangel, T. F. et al. Modeling the ecology and evolution of biodiversity: biogeographical cradles, museums, and graves. Science 361, 244 (2018).
Rahbek, C. et al. Humboldt’s enigma: what causes global patterns of mountain biodiversity? Science 365, 1108–1113 (2019).
Lyons, N. J., Val, P., Albert, J. S., Willenbring, J. K. & Gasparini, N. M. Topographic controls on divide migration, stream capture, and diversification in riverine life. Earth Surf. Dyn. 8, 893–912 (2020).
Ding, L. et al. Timing and mechanisms of Tibetan Plateau uplift. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 3, 652–667 (2022).
Wu, F. et al. Reorganization of Asian climate in relation to Tibetan Plateau uplift. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 3, 684–700 (2022).
Ali, J. R. & Hedges, S. B. A review of geological evidence bearing on proposed Cenozoic land connections between Madagascar and Africa and its relevance to biogeography. Earth Sci. Rev. 232, 104103 (2022).
Ding, W., Ree, R. H., Spicer, R. A. & Xing, Y. Ancient orogenic and monsoon-driven assembly of the world’s richest temperate alpine flora. Science 369, 578–581 (2020).
Antonelli, A. et al. Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: evolution, distribution, and use. Science 378, eabf0869 (2022).
Quintero, I. & Jetz, W. Global elevational diversity and diversification of birds. Nature 555, 246–250 (2018).
Guo, Q. et al. Global variation in elevational diversity patterns. Sci. Rep. 3, 3007 (2013).
Fine, P. V. A. Ecological and evolutionary drivers of geographic variation in species diversity. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 46, 369–392 (2015).
Manish, K. et al. Elevational plant species richness patterns and their drivers across non-endemics, endemics and growth forms in the Eastern Himalaya. J. Plant Res. 130, 829–844 (2017).
Hawkins, B. A. et al. Energy, water, and broad-scale geographic patterns of species richness. Ecology 84, 3105–3117 (2003).
Field, R. et al. Spatial species-richness gradients across scales: a meta-analysis. J. Biogeogr. 36, 132–147 (2009).
Stein, A., Gerstner, K. & Kreft, H. Environmental heterogeneity as a universal driver of species richness across taxa, biomes and spatial scales. Ecol. Lett. 17, 866–880 (2014).
Mittelbach, G. G. et al. Evolution and the latitudinal diversity gradient: speciation, extinction and biogeography. Ecol. Lett. 10, 315–331 (2007).
Körner, C. Mountain biodiversity, its causes and function. Ambio 33, 11–17 (2004).
Sanders, N. J. & Rahbek, C. The patterns and causes of elevational diversity gradients. Ecography 35, 1–3 (2012).
Körner, C. The use of ‘altitude’ in ecological research. Trends Ecol. Evol. 22, 569–574 (2007).
Rahbek, C. The role of spatial scale and the perception of large-scale species-richness patterns. Ecol. Lett. 8, 224–239 (2004).
Hughes, A. C. et al. Sampling biases shape our view of the natural world. Ecography 44, 1259–1269 (2021).
Raja, N. B. et al. Colonial history and global economics distort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 6, 145–154 (2022).
Hoorn, C., Perrigo, A. & Antonelli, A. Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity. (Wiley, 2018).
Chen, F. et al. The evolutions of the Yangtze River and its biodiversity. The Innovation 4, 100417 (2023).
Albert, J. S., Tagliacollo, V. A. & Dagosta, F. Diversification of neotropical freshwater fishes. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 51, 27–53 (2020).
Waters, J. M., Craw, D., Youngson, J. H. & Wallis, G. P. Genes meet geology: fish phylogeographic pattern reflects ancient, rather than modern, drainage connections. Evolution 55, 1844–1851 (2001).
Waters, J. M., Burridge, C. P. & Craw, D. River capture and freshwater biological evolution: a review of galaxiid fish vicariance. Diversity 12, 216 (2020).
Albert, J. S. et al. Late Neogene megariver captures and the great Amazonian biotic interchange. Glob. Planet. Chang. 205, 103554 (2021).
Pfennig, K. & Pfennig, D. Character displacement: ecological and reproductive responses to a common evolutionary problem. Q. Rev. Biol. 84, 253–276 (2009).
Waters, J. M. Competitive exclusion: phylogeography’s ‘elephant in the room’? Mol. Ecol. 20, 4388–4394 (2011).
Rabosky, D. L. Diversity-dependence, ecological speciation, and the role of competition in macroevolution. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 44, 481–502 (2013).
Abbott, R. et al. Hybridization and speciation. J. Evol. Biol. 26, 229–246 (2013).
Taylor, S. A. & Larson, E. L. Insights from genomes into the evolutionary importance and prevalence of hybridization in nature. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 170–177 (2019).
Neuharth, D. et al. Evolution of rift systems and their fault networks in response to surface processes. Tectonics 41, e2021TC007166 (2022).
Yuan, X. P., Braun, J., Guerit, L., Rouby, D. & Cordonnier, G. A new efficient method to solve the stream power law model taking into account sediment deposition. J. Geophys. Res. Earth Surf. 124, 1346–1365 (2019).
Acevedo-Trejos, E., Braun, J., Kravitz, K., Raharinirina, N. A. & Bovy, B. AdaScape 1.0: a coupled modelling tool to investigate the links between tectonics, climate, and biodiversity. Geosci. Model Dev. 16, 6921–6941 (2023).
Yuan, X. P., Jiao, R., Dupont‐Nivet, G. & Shen, X. Southeastern Tibetan Plateau growth revealed by inverse analysis of landscape evolution model. Geophys. Res. Lett. 49, e2021GL097623 (2022).
Stokes, M. F. et al. Erosion of heterogeneous rock drives diversification of Appalachian fishes. Science 380, 855–859 (2023).
Cook, K. L., Andermann, C., Gimbert, F., Adhikari, B. R. & Hovius, N. Glacial lake outburst floods as drivers of fluvial erosion in the Himalaya. Science 362, 53–57 (2018).
Nie, Y. et al. Glacial change and hydrological implications in the Himalaya and Karakoram. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 2, 91–106 (2021).
Compagno, L., Huss, M., Zekollari, H., Miles, E. S. & Farinotti, D. Future growth and decline of high mountain Asia’s ice-dammed lakes and associated risk. Commun. Earth Environ. 3, 191 (2022).
Taylor, C., Robinson, T. R., Dunning, S., Rachel Carr, J. & Westoby, M. Glacial lake outburst floods threaten millions globally. Nat. Commun. 14, 487 (2023).
Wang, W. et al. Abandonment of ancient cities near the Salawusu River valley, China, triggered by stream capture. Commun. Earth Environ. 3, 326 (2022).
Bauer, P., Stevens, B. & Hazeleger, W. A digital twin of Earth for the green transition. Nat. Clim. Chang. 11, 80–83 (2021).
Li, X. et al. Big Data in Earth system science and progress towards a digital twin. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 4, 319–332 (2023).
Ramirez, R. M. & Craddock, R. A. The geological and climatological case for a warmer and wetter early Mars. Nat. Geosci. 11, 230–237 (2018).
Galofre, A. G., Jellinek, A. M. & Osinski, G. R. Valley formation on early Mars by subglacial and fluvial erosion. Nat. Geosci. 13, 663–668 (2020).
Stucky de Quay, G., Goudge, T. A., Kite, E. S., Fassett, C. I. & Guzewich, S. D. Limits on runoff episode duration for early Mars: integrating lake hydrology and climate models. Geophys. Res. Lett. 48, e2021GL093523 (2021).
Bamber, E. R., Goudge, T. A., Fassett, C. I., Osinski, G. R. & Stucky de Quay, G. Paleolake inlet valley formation: factors controlling which craters breached on early Mars. Geophys. Res. Lett. 49, e2022GL101097 (2022).
Mangold, N., Adeli, S., Conway, S., Ansan, V. & Langlais, B. A chronology of early Mars climatic evolution from impact crater degradation. J. Geophys. Res. Planets 117, E04003 (2012).
Goudge, T. A., Fassett, C. I., Head, J. W., Mustard, J. F. & Aureli, K. L. Insights into surface runoff on early Mars from paleolake basin morphology and stratigraphy. Geology 44, 419–422 (2016).
Goudge, T. A., Fassett, C. I. & Mohrig, D. Incision of paleolake outlet canyons on Mars from overflow flooding. Geology 47, 7–10 (2018).
Wordsworth, R. D. The climate of early Mars. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 44, 381–408 (2016).
de Haas, T., Conway, S. J. & Krautblatter, M. Recent (Late Amazonian) enhanced backweathering rates on Mars: paracratering evidence from gully alcoves. J. Geophys. Res. Planets 120, 2169–2189 (2015).
Farr, T. G. et al. The shuttle radar topography mission. Rev. Geophys. 45, RG2004 (2007).
He, C. et al. A global dataset of the shape of drainage systems. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-363 (2023).
He, C. Tectonic Control on the Migration of the Main Drainage Divide of a Mountain Belt: Constraints from Numerical Modeling and Topographic Analyses. PhD thesis, Zhejiang Univ. (2021).
Karger, D. N. et al. Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth’s land surface areas. Sci. Data 4, 170122 (2017).
Jenkins, C. N., Pimm, S. L. & Joppa, L. N. Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, E2602–E2610 (2013).
Lehner, B. & Grill, G. Global river hydrography and network routing: baseline data and new approaches to study the world’s large river systems. Hydrol. Process. 27, 2171–2186 (2013).
Acknowledgements
The authors thank W. Schwanghart, M. F. Stokes and A. M. Forte for sharing the original data. The authors express their sincere gratitude to J. Turowski, E. Deal, L. Gourbet, H. Davies and A. Wild for their suggestions on the previous versions of this manuscript. The authors thank Y. Y. Wang and T. Ehlers for the discussions. Special thanks are extended to L. Becker for improving the English of the manuscript. C.H. acknowledges support from NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China) (grant 42201008), Helmholtz-OCPC Postdoc Program, and the Expedition Funding from German Research Centre for Geosciences (grant XP235501). J.B. and E.A-T. are supported by the German Research Foundation (grant 268236062) as part of the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Earth evolution at the dry limit’ (CRC-1211). X.Y. acknowledges funding from NSFC (grant 42272261).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C.H. wrote the first draft and made the figures. All authors contributed to the conceptualization, discussion, data collection and editing of all manuscript components.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks S. Willett and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Glossary
- Base level
-
The regional lowest point above which a river can erode its channel, such as the ocean or a lake.
- Biodiversity
-
The variety of lifeforms, including their genetic, phenotypic, functional, taxonomic and ecological variation in space and time.
- Catchments
-
Geographical areas where surface water flows and converges into common drainage points.
- Digital twin
-
A digital model that uses real-time data and simulation to replicate the behaviour of a physical system or process, enabling optimization and predictive maintenance.
- Expanding catchment
-
Catchment that gains drainage area from their neighbours during divide migration.
- Hillslopes
-
The sloping surfaces of hills located between river channels and drainage divides.
- Horizontal tectonic advection
-
The movement of topography in a horizontal direction induced by tectonic deformation.
- Impact crater rim
-
A raised boundary encircling an impact crater, often functioning as a drainage divide.
- Knickpoint
-
A sharp change in the slope of river profile, such as a waterfall.
- Main drainage divide
-
A drainage divide that separates multiple drainage basins.
- Rift margin escarpments
-
Cliffs formed along the edge of rift valleys where the Earth’s crust pulls apart.
- Shrinking catchment
-
Catchment that loses drainage area during divide migration.
- Thermochronology
-
A geological dating technique that determines the temperature history of rocks, revealing the timing of tectonic and erosional events.
- Wind gap
-
A drainage divide through which a waterway once flowed but is now dry owing to river capture.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
He, C., Braun, J., Tang, H. et al. Drainage divide migration and implications for climate and biodiversity. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 177–192 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00511-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00511-z