Quaternary Science Advances (Jan 2023)
How erosion shapes dynamic Quaternary mountain environments: A review
Abstract
Erosion is a key driver of mountain topography and landform/landscape heterogeneity in the Quaternary. While uncertainty persists on the precise relationship between erosion and uplift, a number of recent studies converge on the important insight that erosion is influential at short to intermediate scales of geological time—and has been particularly enhanced by periodic onset and retreat of glaciation in Quaternary mountain environments. Here, those insights are reviewed with particular focus on mountain geodiversity and on the glacial buzzsaw and critically tapered wedge mechanisms. The key insights derived from these studies are: (i) periodic glaciation episodes in the Quaternary have provided strong pulses of erosion shaping mountain topography; (ii) glacial erosion is nonlinear and its characteristics may be location-specific to an extent; (iii) erosion operates in tandem with a complex set of deep earth and atmospheric processes; and (iv) glacial processes have led to persistent disequilibrium states that drive landform/landscape heterogeneity and niche/habitat formation. Accordingly, erosion is implicated in the high geodiversity of Quaternary mountain environments, which in turn supports high species endemism and biodiversity. However, in the recent decades, pervasive anthropogenic influence has influenced the natural range of erosion in mountains. Against this backdrop, erosion in mountain environments needs to be understood as a fundamentally important earth heritage that provides numerous vital benefits to the biosphere and the human society.
