地理漫步·世界地理英语30篇（4）

24 / 30

巽他陆架：塑造岛屿生物地理格局的淹没大陆架

The Sunda Shelf is a shallow continental platform submerged beneath the South China Sea and Java Sea.
During Pleistocene glacial lows, sea levels dropped over 120 meters, exposing vast lowland plains.
This land bridge connected modern islands like Sumatra, Java, and Borneo into a single Sundaland continent.
Mammal species dispersed freely across this emergent terrain, explaining shared fauna across current islands.
Post-glacial sea rise fragmented habitats, isolating populations and driving speciation in frogs and birds.
Coral reefs now thrive along its drowned margins, forming biodiversity-rich marine ecotones.
Sediment cores reveal mangrove expansion coinciding with Holocene sea-level stabilization.
Current oil and gas exploration targets ancient river channels preserved beneath shelf sediments.
Tidal resonance patterns differ markedly across its broad, gently sloping bathymetry.
This shelf exemplifies how paleogeography constrains present-day ecological boundaries and resource distribution.