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Large bodies   of water are among the most obvious barriers to dispersal and hence to gene   flow of terrestrial organisms, although occasional dispersal even over wide   marine barriers is today acknowledged as having a major influence on   biogeographical patterns (de Queiroz, 2005). Because of their geographically   wide and temporally stable extension, large rivers clearly play a major role   in delimiting the geographical distribution of species, as first noted by Wallace   (1852) for Amazonian monkeys. While there are no doubts that rivers do limit   the distributions of many species, their role in the actual process of   species formation remains unclear: they might constitute the primary factor   causing the isolation of populations and their divergence in allopatry, or   they might simply be a barrier to secondary contact of expanding populations   that previously diverged in refugia (Moritz et al., 2000; Vences et al., 2009).   Several case studies have dealt with the influence of rivers on the   distribution and genetic structure of species, especially in the Amazon where   rivers are particularly wide and thus can be efficient barriers (Gascon et   al., 1996, 1998, 2000; Lougheed et al., 1999; Patton et al., 2000; Hayes and   Sewlal, 2004). As a general conclusion from these studies, the influence of   rivers seems to be specific to taxa and particular geographical settings, but   few groups of organisms appear to be as strictly limited by rivers as are   primates. The strength of riverine barriers may decrease towards the   headwaters where rivers are narrower, as shown in a number of vertebrate   groups (e.g. Ayres and Clutton-Brock, 1992; Hayes and Sewlal, 2004).

大型水体是最明显的陆地生物扩散和基因流动的障碍之一，尽管现在已知偶尔跨过像海洋这样大水体屏障的扩散，被认为对生物地理模式有重大影响（De Queiroz，2005）。由于大型河流的宽广、稳定，它们显然在界定物种地理分布方面起着重要作用，正如华莱士（Wallace, 1852）对亚马逊河猴的的研究中首次指出的那样。尽管毫无疑问，河流确实限制了许多物种的分布，但它们在物种形成的实际过程中的作用仍不清楚：它们可能是导致种群隔离和异域种群分化的主要因素，或者它们可能仅仅是扩大后的种群（在不同的避难所，种群早已发生分化），进行二次接触的障碍。(Moritz et al., 2000; Vences et al., 2009)。一些个例研究已经探究了河流对物种分布和遗传结构的影响，特别是亚马逊地区，那里的河流特别宽，因此可以成为有效的屏障(Gascon et al., 1996, 1998, 2000;   Lougheed et al., 1999; Patton et al., 2000; Hayes and Sewlal, 2004)。作为这些研究的一个初步结论，河流的影响似乎是因类群和特定的地理环境而异的，但似乎像灵长类这样的较少的几个生物类群受到河流的严格限制。如一些脊椎动物群体的研究所揭示的那样，河流屏障的强度可能会向河流较窄的源头降低(e.g. Ayres and Clutton-Brock, 1992; Hayes   and Sewlal, 2004)。

参考文献：

Gehring, PS,   Pabijan M, Randrianirina JE, Glaw F, Vences M. 2012. The influence of   riverine barriers on phylogeographic patterns of Malagasy reed frogs (   Heterixalus ) [J]. Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution, 64(3): 618-632.