A productivity collapse to end earth's great oxidation

Author Posting. © National Academy of Sciences, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of National Academy of Sciences for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (35), (2019): 17207-17212, doi:10.1073/pnas.1900325116.It has been hypothesized that the overall size of—or efficiency of carbon export from—the biosphere decreased at the end of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) (ca. 2,400 to 2,050 Ma). However, the timing, tempo, and trigger for this decrease remain poorly constrained. Here we test this hypothesis by studying the isotope geochemistry of sulfate minerals from the Belcher Group, in subarctic Canada. Using insights from sulfur and barium isotope measurements, combined with radiometric ages from bracketing strata, we infer that the sulfate minerals studied here record ambient sulfate in the immediate aftermath of the GOE (ca. 2,018 Ma). These sulfate minerals captured negative triple-oxygen isotope anomalies as low as ∼ −0.8‰. Such negative values occurring shortly after the GOE require a rapid reduction in primary productivity of >80%, although even larger reductions are plausible. Given that these data imply a collapse in primary productivity rather than export efficiency, the trigger for this shift in the Earth system must reflect a change in the availability of nutrients, such as phosphorus. Cumulatively, these data highlight that Earth’s GOE is a tale of feast and famine: A geologically unprecedented reduction in the size of the biosphere occurred across the end-GOE transition.Olivia M. J. Dagnaud assisted during fieldwork. S. V. Lalonde and E. A. Sperling provided helpful comments on an early version of the manuscript. We thank N. J. Planavsky and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive feedback. M.S.W.H. was supported by an NSERC PGS-D and student research grants from National Geographic, the APS Lewis and Clark Fund, Northern Science Training Program, McGill University Graduate Research Enhancement and Travel Awards, Geological Society of America, Mineralogical Association of Canada, and Stanford University. P.W.C. acknowledges support from the University of Colorado Boulder, the Agouron Institute Geobiology postdoctoral Fellowship program, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada Postgraduate Scholarship–Doctoral Program scholarship, and the NSTP. Y.P. was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS (XDB26000000). T.J.H. thanks Maureen E. Auro for laboratory assistance and the NSF for supporting isotope research in the NIRVANA Labs.2020-02-1

Bridging the Gap Between the Foreland and Hinterland II: Geochronology and Tectonic Setting of Ordovician Magmatism and Basin Formation on the Laurentian Margin of New England and Newfoundland

Ordovician strata of the Mohawk Valley and Taconic allochthon of New York and the Humber margin of Newfoundland record multiple magmatic and basin-forming episodes associated with the Taconic orogeny. Here we present new U-Pb zircon geochronology and whole rock geochemistry and neodymium isotopes from Early Paleozoic volcanic ashes and siliciclastic units on the northern Appalachian margin of Laurentia. Volcanic ashes in the Table Point Formation of Newfoundland and the Indian River Formation of the Taconic allochthon in New York yield dates between 466.16 ± 0.12 and 464.20 ± 0.13 Ma. Red, bioturbated slate of the Indian River Formation record a shift to more juvenile neodymium isotope values suggesting sedimentary contributions from the Taconic arc-system by 466 Ma. Eight ashes within the Trenton Group in the Mohawk Valley were dated between 452.63 ± 0.06 and 450.68 ± 0.12 Ma. These ashes contain zircon with Late Ordovician magmatic rims and 1.4 to 1.0 Ga xenocrystic cores that were inherited from Grenville basement, suggesting that the parent magmas erupted through the Laurentian margin. The new geochronological and geochemical data are integrated with a subsidence model and data from the hinterland to refine the tectonic model of the Taconic orogeny. Closure of the Iapetus Ocean by 475 Ma via collision of the peri-Gondwanan Moretown terrane with hyperextended distal fragments of the Laurentian margin is not clearly manifested on the autochthon or the Taconic allochthon other than an increase in sediment accumulation. Pro-foreland basins formed during the Middle Ordovician when these terranes were obducted onto the Laurentian margin. 466 to 464 Ma ashes on the Laurentian margin coincide with a late pulse of magmatism in both the Notre Dame arc in Newfoundland and the Shelburne Falls arc of New England that is potentially related to break-off of an east-dipping slab. Following slab reversal, by 455 Ma, the Bronson Hill arc was established on the new composite Laurentian margin. Thus, we conclude that Late Ordovician strata in the Mohawk Valley and Taconic allochthon of New York and on the Humber margin of Newfoundland were deposited in retro-foreland basins

Large sulfur isotope fractionation by bacterial sulfide oxidation.

A sulfide-oxidizing microorganism, Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus (DA), generates a consistent enrichment of sulfur-34 (34 S) in the produced sulfate of +12.5 per mil or greater. This observation challenges the general consensus that the microbial oxidation of sulfide does not result in large 34 S enrichments and suggests that sedimentary sulfides and sulfates may be influenced by metabolic activity associated with sulfide oxidation. Since the DA-type sulfide oxidation pathway is ubiquitous in sediments, in the modern environment, and throughout Earth history, the enrichments and depletions in 34 S in sediments may be the combined result of three microbial metabolisms: microbial sulfate reduction, the disproportionation of external sulfur intermediates, and microbial sulfide oxidation

Precise age of Bangiomorpha pubescens dates the origin of eukaryotic photosynthesis

Although the geological record indicates that eukaryotes evolved by 1.9–1.4 Ga, their early evolution is poorly resolved taxonomically and chronologically. The fossil red alga Bangiomorpha pubescens is the only recognized crown-group eukaryote older than ca. 0.8 Ga and marks the earliest known expression of extant forms of multicellularity and eukaryotic photosynthesis. Because it postdates the divergence between the red and green algae and the prior endosymbiotic event that gave rise to the chloroplast, B. pubescens is uniquely important for calibrating eukaryotic evolution. However, molecular clock estimates for the divergence between the red and green algae are highly variable, and some analyses estimate this split to be younger than the widely inferred but poorly constrained first appearance age of 1.2 Ga for B. pubescens. As a result, many molecular clock studies reject this fossil ex post facto. Here we present new Re-Os isotopic ages from sedimentary rocks that stratigraphically bracket the occurrence of B. pubescens in the Bylot Supergroup of Baffin Island and revise its first appearance to 1.047 +0.013/–0.017 Ga. This date is 150 m.y. younger than commonly held interpretations and permits more precise estimates of early eukaryotic evolution. Using cross-calibrated molecular clock analyses with the new fossil age, we calculate that photosynthesis within the Eukarya emerged ca. 1.25 Ga. This date for primary plastid endosymbiosis serves as a benchmark for interpreting the fossil record of early eukaryotes and evaluating their role in the Proterozoic biosphere

Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate

The question of how significant barite deposits were able to form from early Earth’s low-sulfate seas remains controversial. Here, the authors show pelagic barite precipitation within a strongly barite-undersaturated ecosystem, highlighting the importance of particle-associated microenvironments

Publisher Correction : Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 9 (2018): 305, doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02701-y.Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01229-5, Article published online 07 November 201

Precise age of Bangiomorpha pubescens dates the origin of eukaryotic photosynthesis

Although the geological record indicates that eukaryotes evolved by 1.9–1.4 Ga, their early evolution is poorly resolved taxonomically and chronologically. The fossil red alga Bangiomorpha pubescens is the only recognized crown-group eukaryote older than ca. 0.8 Ga and marks the earliest known expression of extant forms of multicellularity and eukaryotic photosynthesis. Because it postdates the divergence between the red and green algae and the prior endosymbiotic event that gave rise to the chloroplast, B. pubescens is uniquely important for calibrating eukaryotic evolution. However, molecular clock estimates for the divergence between the red and green algae are highly variable, and some analyses estimate this split to be younger than the widely inferred but poorly constrained first appearance age of 1.2 Ga for B. pubescens. As a result, many molecular clock studies reject this fossil ex post facto. Here we present new Re-Os isotopic ages from sedimentary rocks that stratigraphically bracket the occurrence of B. pubescens in the Bylot Supergroup of Baffin Island and revise its first appearance to 1.047 +0.013/–0.017 Ga. This date is 150 m.y. younger than commonly held interpretations and permits more precise estimates of early eukaryotic evolution. Using cross-calibrated molecular clock analyses with the new fossil age, we calculate that photosynthesis within the Eukarya emerged ca. 1.25 Ga. This date for primary plastid endosymbiosis serves as a benchmark for interpreting the fossil record of early eukaryotes and evaluating their role in the Proterozoic biosphere

A possible new syndrome with growth-hormone secreting pituitary adenoma, colonic polyposis, lipomatosis, lentigines and renal carcinoma in association with familial testicular germ cell malignancy: A case report

BACKGROUND: Germ-cell testicular cancer has not been definitively linked to any known hereditary cancer susceptibility disorder. Familial testicular cancer in the presence of other findings in affected and unaffected family members might indicate a previously-unidentified hereditary cancer syndrome. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient was diagnosed with a left testicular seminoma at age 28, and treated with left orchiectomy followed by adjuvant cobalt radiation. His family history is significant for testicular seminoma in his son, bladder cancer in his sister, and lipomatosis in his father. His evaluation as part of an etiologic study of familial testicular cancer revealed multiple colon polyps (adenomatous, hyperplastic, and hamartomatous) first found in his 50 s, multiple lipomas, multiple hyperpigmented skin lesions, left kidney cancer diagnosed at age 64, and a growth-hormone producing pituitary adenoma with associated acromegaly diagnosed at age 64. The patient underwent genetic testing for Cowden syndrome (PTEN gene), Carney complex (PRKAR1A gene), and multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1 (MEN1 gene); no deleterious mutations were identified. DISCUSSION: The constellation of benign and malignant neoplasms in the context of this patient's familial testicular cancer raised the possibility that these might be manifestations of a known hereditary susceptibility cancer syndrome; however, genetic testing for the three syndromes that were most likely to explain these findings did not show any mutation. Alternatively, this family's phenotype might represent a novel neoplasm susceptibility disorder. This possibility cannot be evaluated definitively on the basis of a single case report; additional observations and studies are necessary to investigate this hypothesis further