This event is part of our ongoing Thursday Seminar Series.

About this seminar: The mountain ranges of the central and southern United States have long been considered enigmatic, both for their sustained topographic relief and exceptional levels of freshwater biodiversity. In this talk, I propose that the erosional exhumation of ancient geologic structures is an important mechanism for explaining the topography and freshwater biodiversity of these post-orogenic landscapes. As ancient geologic structures are exhumed through erosion, rocks with different chemical and physical properties are exposed at the surface of the landscape. This process does not only influence landscape dynamics, but also generates opportunities for speciation in freshwater fishes.