Rare-earth elements(REE) in limestones were measured by ICP-MS from the Yangdi section across the Frasnian-Famennian(F-F) transition in Guilin,Guangxi of South China.The averageΣREE contents of measured samples are 33.32 ppm.The average LREE/HREE ratio is 6.35.Data show LREE-enriched REE distribution pattern in the Yangdi section.Most of samples are characterized by positive Eu anomaly with average of 1.13,and there are two maxima of Eu anomaly just below the F-F boundary.Almost all analytical samples show obvious tetrad effects.Remarkable M-shaped tetrad effects are observed in these samples with positive Eu anomaly.The characters of REE and some relative elements(Fe,Mn,Al,etc.) indicate that hydrothermal activities occurred and resulted in seawater acidification in Upper and Lower Kellwasser horizons of the Late Devonian.The changes of marine environment caused by hydrothermal activities,such as seawater acidification,heavy metal pollution,and eutrophication,would destroy the neritic ecosystem and finally result in the F-F mass extinction.
The abundance curves derived from area proportions of brachiopods and Girvanella in the thin sections from the Yangdi section, South China, exhibits complex relationships during the Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian transition. The living activity of brachiopods such as grazing and borrowing did great damage to the growth of Girvanella. However, there was more to just a mere a survival competing relationship between them, Girvanella actually improved marine environments by oxygenating the dysoxic ambient sea-water through photosynthesis in the lower Kellwasser Horizon. Profited from this improvement brachiopods' abundance increased subsequently and suppressed Girvanella again. Nonetheless, without Girvanella's photosynthesis, brachiopods were wiped out by the farther anoxic environments in the upper Kellwasser Horizon. The complex relationships between Girvanella and brachiopods may be a key to unlocking the relationships between geomicrobes and metazoans in the geological overturn periods.
