The long-term diversification of the biosphere responds to changes in the physical environment. Yet, over the continents, the nearly monotonic expansion of life started later in the early part of the Phanerozoic eon¹ than the expansion in the marine realm, where instead the number of genera waxed and waned over time². A comprehensive evaluation of the changes in the geodynamic and climatic forcing fails to provide a unified theory for the long-term pattern of evolution of life on Earth. Here we couple climate and plate tectonics models to numerically reconstruct the evolution of the Earth’s landscape over the entire Phanerozoic eon, which we then compare to palaeo-diversity datasets from marine animal and land plant genera. Our results indicate that biodiversity is strongly reliant on landscape dynamics, which at all times determine the carrying capacity of both the continental domain and the oceanic domain. In the oceans, diversity closely adjusted to the riverine sedimentary flux that provides nutrients for primary production. On land, plant expansion was hampered by poor edaphic conditions until widespread endorheic basins resurfaced continents with a sedimentary cover that facilitated the development of soil-dependent rooted flora, and the increasing variety of the landscape additionally promoted their development.

生物圈的长期多样化对自然环境的变化作出反应。然而，在大陆上，生命近乎单调的扩张在显生宙早期开始的时间比海洋领域的扩张^要晚，相反，海洋领域的物种数量随着时间的推移而增加和减少² 。对地球动力和气候强迫变化的综合评估无法为地球生命的长期演化模式提供统一的理论。在这里，我们将气候和板块构造模型结合起来，以数字方式重建整个显生宙中地球景观的演化，然后将其与海洋动物和陆地植物属的古多样性数据集进行比较。我们的结果表明，生物多样性强烈依赖于景观动态，景观动态始终决定着大陆域和海洋域的承载能力。在海洋中，多样性与为初级生产提供营养的河流沉积通量密切相关。在陆地上，植物的扩张受到恶劣土壤条件的阻碍，直到广泛的内流盆地重新覆盖了大陆，沉积物覆盖促进了依赖土壤的根系植物群的发展，而景观的多样性也进一步促进了它们的发展。