Provenance of Ordovician and Devonian sandstones from southern Peru and northern Bolivia - U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope evidence of detrital zircons and its implications for the geodynamic evolution of the Western Gondwana margin (14° - 17° S)

In an attempt to trace the provenance of sedimentary detritus and to gain information on the crustal evolution of the Early Paleozoic western Gondwana margin (14°-17°S) we applied a combined in situ U-Pb and Lu-Hf LA-ICP-MS isotope analysis on detrital zircon from 12 Ordovician and Devonian sandstones in southern Peru and northern Bolivia. The sandstones are exposed in the Eastern Cordillera, the Altiplano and the Coastal Cordillera. The sedimentary basins are part of the Peru-Bolivia trough. Few intrusive and extrusive Early Paleozoic rocks indicate that the Ordovician basins developed in a back-arc position, with the arc on the Arequipa Massif in the west and the Amazonian craton in the east. This plate-tectonic setting appears to have changed into a passive margin in the Early Devonian. The U-Pb zircon age distribution of the Ordovician sandstones from the Eastern Cordillera has the most distinctive peak between 0.7 and 0.5 Ga (Brazilian interval). Contrastingly, the most prominent U-Pb zircon age peak of the Ordovician sandstones from the Altiplano is at 1.2-0.9 Ga (Grenvillian interval) with a smaller peak at 1.85-1.7 Ga. The Devonian sandstones from the same locality on the Altiplano contain zircons with a major age peak at 0.5-0.4 Ga (Famatinian interval). Smaller U-Pb age peaks can be connected to the Brazilian, Grenvillian and Transamazonian (2.2-1.8 Ga) intervals. Zircons of the Devonian sandstones from the Coastal Cordillera have a similar age distribution but the Grenvillian ages, in one case also the Transamazonian ages are significantly more pronounced than the Brazilian ages. Zircons formed during the Brazilian interval could have been derived from various eastern sources on the Amazonian craton, those with Grenvillian ages were derived either from the Sunsas belt to the east or from the Arequipa Massif to the west of the sedimentary basin. Zircons related to the Famatinan event most probably originated in the Arequipa Massif, the closest place where respective magmatic arc rocks were available. Thus, the Ordovician sandstones of the Eastern Cordillera and the Altiplano had an eastern source, while the Altiplano locality was fed from a very limited source area, probably the Sunsas belt. The Devonian siliciclastic strata instead were mainly influenced by the Arequipa Massif. Minor influences of eastern sources are documented by the presence of Brazilian zircon ages. The in situ Lu-Hf isotope signature provides information about crustal recycling. Together with the U-Pb zircon ages, crustal evolution paths can be reconstructed. εHf(t) values of the analysed zircons spread between –20 and +12. Zircons with a very juvenile signatures (less than 5 εHf-units below the respective depleted mantle composition) we detected only in the interval between 1.5 and 0.9 Ga. Hence, of the Brazilian and Famatinian events we only find zircons derived from an evolved crust. A striking feature is the common Hf model ages (c.1.5-1.2 Ga) of zircons formed during the Grenvillian, Brazilian and Famatinian orogenies. This indicates that Famatinian-aged crystalline rocks of the Arequipa Massif and the Brazilianaged crystalline rocks of the Amazonian craton have a similar crustal origin

Toward a physiological explanation of juvenile growth curves

Juvenile growth curves are generally sigmoid in shape: Growth is initially nearly exponential, but it slows to near zero as the animal approaches maturity. The drop‐off in growth rate is puzzling because, everything else being equal, selection favors growing as fast as possible. Existing theory posits sublinear scaling of resource acquisition with juvenile body mass and linear scaling of the requirement for maintenance, so the difference, fuel for growth, decreases as the juvenile increases in size. Experimental evidence, however, suggests that maintenance metabolism increases sublinearly not linearly with size. Here, we develop a new theory consistent with the experimental evidence. Our theory is based on the plausible assumption that there is a trade‐off in the capacity of capillaries to supply growing and developed cells. As the proportion of non‐growing cells increases, they take up more macromolecules from the capillaries, leaving fewer to support growing cells. The predicted growth curves are realistic and similar to those of previous models (Bertalanffy, Gompertz, and Logistic) but have the advantage of being derived from a plausible physiological model. We hope that our focus on resource delivery in capillaries will encourage new experimental work to identify the detailed physiological basis of the trade‐off underlying juvenile growth curves

Estimate of halo ellipticity as a function of radius with flexions

The cold dark matter theory predicts triaxial dark matter haloes. The radial distribution of halo ellipticity depends on baryonic processes and the nature of dark matter particles (collisionless or collisional). Here we show that we can use lensing flexion ratios to measure the halo ellipticity as a function of radius. We introduce a weight function and study the relationship between the first and second order statistics of flexion ratios, both of which can be used to reduce the bias in the estimate of ellipticity. we perform numerical tests for our method, and demonstrate that it can reduce the bias and determine the halo ellipticity as a function of radius. We also point out that the minimum mean flexion ratio can be used to trace the centres of galaxy clusters.Comment: 9 pages,9 figures, MNRAS accepte

Modes of Growth in Dynamic Systems

Regardless of a system's complexity or scale, its growth can be considered to be a spontaneous thermodynamic response to a local convergence of down-gradient material flows. Here it is shown how growth can be constrained to a few distinct modes that depend on the availability of material and energetic resources. These modes include a law of diminishing returns, logistic behavior and, if resources are expanding very rapidly, super-exponential growth. For a case where a system has a resolved sink as well as a source, growth and decay can be characterized in terms of a slightly modified form of the predator-prey equations commonly employed in ecology, where the perturbation formulation of these equations is equivalent to a damped simple harmonic oscillator. Thus, the framework presented here suggests a common theoretical under-pinning for emergent behaviors in the physical and life sciences. Specific examples are described for phenomena as seemingly dissimilar as the development of rain and the evolution of fish stocks.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, including appendi

Sublethal toxicant effects with dynamic energy budget theory: model formulation

We develop and test a general modeling framework to describe the sublethal effects of pollutants by adding toxicity modules to an established dynamic energy budget (DEB) model. The DEB model describes the rates of energy acquisition and expenditure by individual organisms; the toxicity modules describe how toxicants affect these rates by changing the value of one or more DEB parameters, notably the parameters quantifying the rates of feeding and maintenance. We investigate four toxicity modules that assume: (1) effects on feeding only; (2) effects on maintenance only; (3) effects on feeding and maintenance with similar values for the toxicity parameters; and (4) effects on feeding and maintenance with different values for the toxicity parameters. We test the toxicity modules by fitting each to published data on feeding, respiration, growth and reproduction. Among the pollutants tested are metals (mercury and copper) and various organic compounds (chlorophenols, toluene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, tetradifon and pyridine); organisms include mussels, oysters, earthworms, water fleas and zebrafish. In most cases, the data sets could be adequately described with any of the toxicity modules, and no single module gave superior fits to all data sets. We therefore propose that for many applications, it is reasonable to use the most general and parameter sparse module, i.e. module 3 that assumes similar effects on feeding and maintenance, as a default. For one example (water fleas), we use parameter estimates to calculate the impact of food availability and toxicant levels on the long term population growth rate

Cross-ecosystem effects of terrestrial predators link treefrogs, zooplankton, and aquatic primary production

Predators can directly or indirectly shape food webs through a combination of consumptive and non-consumptive effects. Yet, how these effects vary across natural populations and their consequences for adjacent ecosystems remains poorly resolved. We examined links between terrestrial predators and aquatic ecosystems through their effects on a locally abundant amphibian, the red-eyed treefrog (Agalychnis callidryas), which has arboreal eggs (heavily predated by snakes and wasps) and aquatic larvae; embryos can escape terrestrial threats by hatching at an earlier age and smaller size. Our multi-site field survey indicates that in natural populations, the relative contributions of these consumptive and non-consumptive effects of predators can be substantial and remarkably similar. However, in mesocosms where we experimentally mimicked these predator effects, changes in the density and initial hatching age of tadpoles carried distinct consequences for aquatic food webs. Density-dependent growth resulted in peak tadpole biomass at intermediate densities (reflecting intermediate predation), and early-hatched tadpoles grew 16% faster and produced 26% more biomass than their late-hatched counterparts. These changes in tadpole growth and size differentially affected zooplankton communities, and the production and stability of phytoplankton. Together, these results illustrate multiple pathways through which predators in one ecosystem can modulate the structure of adjacent food webs