Revisiting Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) trophodynamics provides a new vision of the Humboldt Current system

The Peruvian anchovy or anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) forages on plankton and is a main prey for marine mammals, seabirds, fish, and fishers, and is therefore a key element of the food web in the Humboldt Current system (HCS). Here, we present results from the analysis of 21,203 anchoveta stomach contents sampled during 23 acoustic surveys over the period 1996–2003. Prey items were identified to the genus level, and the relative dietary importance of different prey was assessed by determination of their carbon content. Variability in stomach fullness was examined relative to the diel cycle, the distance from the coast, sea surface temperature, and latitude, using generalized additive models (GAMs). Whereas phytoplankton largely dominated anchoveta diets in terms of numerical abundance and comprised >99% of ingested prey items, the carbon content of prey items indicated that zooplankton was by far the most important dietary component, with euphausiids contributing 67.5% of dietary carbon followed by copepods (26.3%). Stomach fullness data showed that anchoveta feed mainly during daytime between 07h00 and 18h00, although night-time feeding also made a substantial contribution to total food consumption. Stomach fullness also varied with latitude, distance from the coast, and temperature, but with substantial variability indicating a high degree of plasticity in anchoveta feeding behaviour. The results suggest an ecological role for anchoveta that challenges current understanding of its position in the foodweb, the functioning of the HCS, and trophic models of the HCS.     

Continental subduction and exhumation of UHP rocks. Structural and geochronological insights from the Dabieshan (East China)

In the Dabieshan, the available models for exhumation of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) rocks are poorly constrained by structural data. A comprehensive structural and kinematic map and a general cross-section of the Dabieshan including its foreland fold belt and the Northern Dabieshan Domain (Foziling and Luzenguang groups) are presented here. South Dabieshan consists from bottom to top of stacked allochtons: (1) an amphibolite facies gneissic unit, devoid of UHP rocks, interpreted here as the relative autochton; (2) an UHP allochton; (3) a HP rock unit (Susong group) mostly retrogressed into greenschist facies micaschists; (4) a weakly metamorphosed Proterozoic slate and sandstone unit; and (5) an unmetamorphosed Cambrian to Early Triassic sedimentary sequence unconformably covered by Jurassic sandstone. All these units exhibit a polyphase ductile deformation characterized by (i) a NW–SE lineation with a top-to-the-NW shearing, and (ii) a southward refolding of early ductile fabrics.

The Central Dabieshan is a 100-km scale migmatitic dome. Newly discovered eclogite xenoliths in a Cretaceous granitoid dated at 102 Ma by the U–Pb method on titanite demonstrate that migmatization post-dates HP–UHP metamorphism. Ductile faults formed in the subsolidus state coeval to migmatization allow us to characterize the structural pattern of doming. Along the dome margins, migmatite is gneissified under post-solidus conditions and mylonitic–ultramylonitic fabrics commonly develop. The north and west boundaries of the Central Dabieshan metamorphics, i.e. the Xiaotian–Mozitan and Macheng faults, are ductile normal faults formed before Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous. A Cretaceous reworking is recorded by synkinematic plutons.

North of the Xiaotian–Mozitan fault, the North Dabieshan Domain consists of metasediments and orthogneiss (Foziling and Luzenguang groups) metamorphosed under greenschist to amphibolite facies which never experienced UHP metamorphism. A rare N–S-trending lineation with top-to-the-south shearing is dated at 260 Ma by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method on muscovite. This early structure related to compressional tectonics is reworked by top-to-the-north extensional shear bands.

The main deformation of the Dabieshan consists of a NW–SE-stretching lineation which wraps around the migmatitic dome but exhibits a consistently top-to-the-NW sense of shear. The Central Dabieshan is interpreted as an extensional migmatitic dome bounded by an arched, top-to-the-NW, detachment fault. This structure may account for a part of the UHP rock exhumation. However, the abundance of amphibolite restites in the Central Dabieshan migmatites and the scarcity of eclogites (found only in a few places) argue for an early stage of exhumation and retrogression of UHP rocks before migmatization. This event is coeval to the N–S extensional structures described in the North Dabieshan Domain. Recent radiometric dates suggest that early exhumation and subsequent migmatization occurred in Triassic–Liassic times. The main foliation is deformed by north-verging recumbent folds coeval to the south-verging folds of the South Dabieshan Domain. An intense Cretaceous magmatism accounts for thermal resetting of most of the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates.

A lithosphere-scale exhumation model, involving continental subduction, synconvergence extension with inversion of southward thrusts into NW-ward normal faults and crustal melting is presented.     

The recording of floods and earthquakes in Lake Chichój,Guatemala during the twentieth century

Laguna Chichój (Lake Chichój) is the only deep permanent lake in the central highlands of Guatemala. The lake is located in the boundary zone between the North American and Caribbean plates. The lake has been struck by devastating earthquakes and tropical cyclones in historical times. We investigated the imprint of twentieth century extreme events on the sedimentary record of this tropical lake using a bathymetric survey of the lake, coring the lake floor, and providing a chronology of sediment accumulation. The lake occupies a series of circular depressions likely formed by the rapid dissolution of a buried body of gypsum. ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs inventories and varve counting indicate high rates of sedimentation (1–2 cm year^?1). The annually layered sediment is interrupted by turbidites of two types: a darker-colored turbidite, enriched in lake-derived biogenic constituents, and interpreted as a seismite, and a lighter-colored type, enriched in catchment-derived constituents, interpreted as a flood layer. Comparison of our ¹³⁷Cs-determined layer ages with a catalog of twentieth century earthquakes shows that an earthquake on the Motagua fault in 1976 generated a conspicuous darker-colored turbidite and slumped deposits in separate parts of the lake. The entire earthquake inventory further reveals that mass movements in the lake are triggered at Modified Mercalli Intensities higher than V. Tropical cyclonic depressions known to have affected the lake area had limited effect on the lake, including Hurricane Mitch in 1998. One storm however produced a significantly thicker flood layer in the 1940s. This storm is reportedly the only event to have generated widespread slope failures in the lake catchment. It is thus inferred that abundant landsliding provided large amounts of concentrated sediment to the lake, through hyperpycnal flows.     

The impact of overfishing and El Niño on the condition factor and reproductive success of Peruvian hake, Merluccius gayi peruanus

In this study we examine physiological responses of Peruvian hake (Merluccius gayi peruanus) to changes in their population structure and physical environment during the period 1971–2004. In particular, we assess the relative investment of energy in growth and/or reproduction of small (20–35 cm) and large (35–50 cm) hake. We calculated the (i) condition (Fulton’s K), (ii) gonad and (iii) gut fullness indices for 42,761 female hakes sampled from commercial landings; these indices indicate fish somatic, reproductive and feeding condition, respectively. Using Generalized Additive Models we then examined potential relationships between these indices and sea surface temperature anomalies and date. Drastic energy exhaustion and a decrease in female hake fecundity were observed during El Niño events. The long-term trend showed a general increase in condition factor and a decrease in gonad index for large hake between 1971 and 2004. Small hake exhibited a different trend with an increase in reproductive activity, which was accompanied by an earlier maturation. We hypothesise that the observed low investment of energy in reproduction by large female hake might be related to the lack of large males, due to a sex-selective fishery and the impact of El Niño. We suggest that fishing diminished hake reproductive capacity, modified the sex ratio in favour of females and increased population vulnerability to environmental stress, in particular to the El Niño. The impact of multidecadal variability and predators like the squid, Dosidicus gigas, remain unresolved until longer time series become available.     

Interpretation of gamma-ray logs: The distribution of uranium in carbonate platform

High gamma-radioactivity in carbonates is usually ascribed to uranium of detrital minerals and organic matter, and to thorium and potassium of clays. The present study based on Urgonian marls and marly limestones (France) shows that some of the most radioactive values correspond instead to some ‘pure’ limestones. These peaks are generally associated with a sequence boundary or a maximum flooding surface. Low-level γ-spectrometry and ICP–MS analyses show that although high radioactivities are mostly associated with uranium, there is no obvious correlation between uranium enrichment and lithology. Also, correlation between high radioactivity and argillaceous beds might not be systematic. To cite this article: M.C. Raddadi et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Considering large earthquake clustering in seismic risk analysis

Earthquakes cluster in space and time resulting in nonlinear damage effects. We compute earthquake interactions using the Coulomb stress transfer theory and dynamic vulnerability from the concept of ductility capacity reduction. We combine both processes in the generic multi-risk framework where risk scenarios are simulated using a variant of the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. We apply the proposed approach to the thrust fault system of northern Italy, considering earthquakes with characteristic magnitudes in the range ~[6, 6.5], different levels of tectonic loading \(\dot{\tau }\) = {10⁻⁴, 10⁻³, 10⁻²} bar/year and a generic stock of fictitious low-rise buildings with different ductility capacities μ _Δ = {2, 4, 6}. We describe the process’ stochasticity by non-stationary Poisson earthquake probabilities and by binomial damage state probabilities. We find that earthquake clustering yields a tail fattening of the seismic risk curve, the effect of which is amplified by damage-dependent fragility due to clustering. The impact of clustering alone is in average more important than dynamic vulnerability, the spatial extent of the former phenomenon being greater than of the latter one.

     

How do granitoid magmas mix with each other? Insights from textures,trace element and Sr–Nd isotopic composition of apatite and titanite from the Matok pluton (South Africa)

In plutonic systems, magma mixing is often modelled by mass balance based on whole-rock geochemistry. However, magma mixing is a chaotic process and chemical equilibration is controlled by non-linear diffusive–advective processes unresolved by the study of bulk samples. Here we present textural observations, LA-(MC-)ICP-MS trace element and Sr–Nd isotopic data of accessory apatites and titanites from a hybrid granodiorite of the Neoarchean Matok pluton (South Africa), collected in a zone of conspicuous mixing between mafic and felsic magmas. Apatite grains mostly show a pronounced zoning in CL images, corresponding to abrupt changes in REE and HFSE concentrations recording their transfer through compositionally different melt domains during mixing. These grains crystallized early, at temperatures of 950–1000 °C. Titanite grains crystallized at temperatures of 820–900 °C (Zr-in-sphene thermometry). They show limited intra-grain chemical variations but huge inter-grain compositional scatter in REE and HFSE, pinpointing crystallization within a crystal mush, from isolated melt pockets having different composition from one another owing to incomplete chemical homogenization and variable Rayleigh fractionation. These chemical–textural characteristics, in combination with partitioning models and Polytopic Vector Analysis, point to “self-mixing” between co-genetic dioritic and granodioritic/granitic magmas. Both resulted from differentiation of mantle-derived mafic melts, showing that mixing does not necessarily involve magmas from contrasted (crust vs. mantle) sources. Systematic variations in εNd _t (?4.5 to ?2.5) and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr_(i) (0.703–0.707) of titanite and apatite grains/domains crystallized from the two magmas point to an isotopically inhomogeneous mantle source, which is not resolved by bulk-rock isotopic data. Interaction between the two magmas must have occurred at relatively high temperatures (ca. 900°C) so that their viscosity contrast remained low, allowing efficient mechanical mixing. Despite this, chemical homogenization was incomplete, as recorded by diffusive fractionation between REE–HFSE and Sr. Modelling thereof reveals that chemical exchange between the liquid phases of the two mixed magmas did not last more than a few tens to hundreds of years. The chemical equilibration between mixed magmas thus strongly depends on the considered elements and observational length scales.     

An Alternative Protocol for Single Zircon Dissolution with Application to (U‐Th‐Sm)/He Thermochronometry

Zircon (U‐Th‐Sm)/He (ZHe) thermochronometry is a powerful tool that has been widely used in geology to constrain the exhumation histories of orogens. In this study, we present an alternative protocol for dissolving zircon grains for determination of parent nuclides. This new alkali fusion procedure developed at the SARM (Service d'Analyse des Roches et des Minéraux) in Nancy, France, is fast (requiring only 2 d, including cleaning steps) and offers several advantages over conventional methods by avoiding: (i) use of HF pressure dissolution and (ii) complete removing of grains from the metal microvials. After dissolution, U, Th and Sm were measured using an ICP‐MS. We tested the new procedure on two different ZHe reference materials, the Fish Canyon Tuff and Buluk Tuff; these provided precision values for ZHe‐age estimations of 9 and 6% (1s), respectively. In addition, using this method, zircons from the Buluk Tuff are shown to be chemically more homogenous and more suitable for assessing the uncertainty of the entire integrated procedure.