Sources and sinks: Geoclimatic dynamics shaped the assembly of endemic fauna in the world’s Third Pole
5 affiliations
- 1Mountain Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province and Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Biodiversity Conservation on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China
- 2China-Croatia Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and National Engineering Research Center for Natural Medicines, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China
- 3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- 4Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nay Pyi Taw 05282, Myanmar
- 5Department of Ecology and Evolution, J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60438, Germany
Abstract
The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), a biodiversity hotspot shaped by tectonic and climatic forces, has seen significant progress in understanding its floristic origins. However, a comprehensive, multitaxon perspective on how its terrestrial fauna assembled remains lacking. Here we integrate time-calibrated phylogenies of over 20,000 species from five major groups (invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals), to reconstruct the evolutionary history of 527 terrestrial animal species endemic to the QTP. Our finding reveals that the QTP has functioned both as a center of in situ diversification and as a “biogeographic sink” that receives species from surrounding regions, however, with pronounced subregional differentiation: the Hengduan Mountains acted primarily as a diversification source, while the Himalaya and the Plateau Platform acted as sinks, accumulating lineages from adjacent regions. The Eocene–Oligocene climatic transition, rather than late Neogene uplift, initiated sustained faunal diversification and biotic exchange. Across subregions, distinct uplift histories and monsoon regimes drove asynchronous evolutionary trajectories, showing that even geographically adjacent regions can exhibit distinct accumulation patterns of lineages. Notably, integrating our faunal evidence with recent floristic assembly data reveals a consistent “plants first, animals later” pattern across the QTP and its subregions, suggesting that early-arriving plant lineages created ecological niches that facilitated subsequent faunal colonization and diversification. This framework advances our understanding of how mountain biotas assemble over time, with implications extending far beyond the QTP.
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BibTeX
@article{jiang2026sources,
title = {{Sources and sinks: Geoclimatic dynamics shaped the assembly of endemic fauna in the world’s Third Pole}},
author = {Dechun Jiang and Mao-Liang Li and Jin-Long Ren and Rui-Han Li and Zhi-Tong Lyu and Sebastian Klaus and Ru-Wan Jia and Tao Xue and Jia-Tang Li},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2602323123},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602323123},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sources and sinks: Geoclimatic dynamics shaped the assembly of endemic fauna in the world’s Third Pole
AU - Dechun Jiang
AU - Mao-Liang Li
AU - Jin-Long Ren
AU - Rui-Han Li
AU - Zhi-Tong Lyu
AU - Sebastian Klaus
AU - Ru-Wan Jia
AU - Tao Xue
AU - Jia-Tang Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2602323123
UR - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602323123
AB - The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP), a biodiversity hotspot shaped by tectonic and climatic forces, has seen significant progress in understanding its floristic origins. However, a comprehensive, multitaxon perspective on how its terrestrial fauna assembled remains lacking. Here we integrate time-calibrated phylogenies of over 20,000 species from five major groups (invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals), to reconstruct the evolutionary history of 527 terrestrial animal species endemic to the QTP. Our finding reveals that the QTP has functioned both as a center of in situ diversification and as a “biogeographic sink” that receives species from surrounding regions, however, with pronounced subregional differentiation: the Hengduan Mountains acted primarily as a diversification source, while the Himalaya and the Plateau Platform acted as sinks, accumulating lineages from adjacent regions. The Eocene–Oligocene climatic transition, rather than late Neogene uplift, initiated sustained faunal diversification and biotic exchange. Across subregions, distinct uplift histories and monsoon regimes drove asynchronous evolutionary trajectories, showing that even geographically adjacent regions can exhibit distinct accumulation patterns of lineages. Notably, integrating our faunal evidence with recent floristic assembly data reveals a consistent “plants first, animals later” pattern across the QTP and its subregions, suggesting that early-arriving plant lineages created ecological niches that facilitated subsequent faunal colonization and diversification. This framework advances our understanding of how mountain biotas assemble over time, with implications extending far beyond the QTP.
SN - 0027-8424
SN - 1091-6490
ER -