Redox architecture of an Ediacaran ocean margin: Integrated chemostratigraphic (δ13C–δ34S–87Sr/86Sr–Ce/Ce*) correlation of the Doushantuo Formation, South China

• Integrated chemostratigraphic correlation of the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation
• Doushantuo Formation is stratigraphically incomplete at inner and outer shelf.
• Euxinic wedge model reconsidered in light of improved stratigraphic correlation
• Rise in 87Sr/86Sr during Shuram Excursion suggests enhanced chemical weathering.
• Fall in δ34S during Shuram Excursion suggests buildup of seawater sulfate.

Early diagenetic silicification and phosphatization of the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation (ca. 635 to 551 Ma) in South China offer extraordinary taphonomic windows into the early evolution of multicellular eukaryotes, including various algal groups and potentially animals. In order to understand how the ecological and taphonomic distribution of these Ediacaran eukaryotes was controlled by oceanic redox conditions, it is critical to reconstruct the redox architecture of the sedimentary basin. Recently two alternative redox models have been proposed to account for the geochemical and sedimentary features of the Doushantuo Formation. One argues that the unit was deposited on a continental margin where a metastable sulfidic wedge was dynamically maintained by a sulfate concentration gradient between shelf and basinal environments. The other contends that the sulfidic water mass was largely restricted to the intra-shelf basin behind a rimmed margin. These two models make different predictions about the stratigraphic completeness and correlation of the Doushantuo Formation. To test these predictions, we generated high-resolution time-series trends of multiple isotopic and elemental tracers, including δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr and Ce/Ce*, to facilitate an integrated chemostratigraphic correlation between inner shelf (Xiaofenghe), intra shelf (Jiulongwan), and outer shelf (Yangjiaping and Zhongling) sections. Our correlations suggest that both the inner and outer shelf sections are stratigraphically incomplete relative to the intra shelf section. The euxinic wedge model should be reconsidered insofar as it is based on a miscorrelation between sections. Viewed from our revised chemostratigraphic framework, euxinic conditions on the platform appear to have been largely restricted to the intra shelf basin. Carbonates in the upper Doushantuo Formation at Jiulongwan and their stratigraphic equivalents are characterized by a profound negative carbon isotope anomaly (i.e., the Shuram Excursion) coincident with a drop in pyrite sulfur isotope values and a significant rise in 87Sr/86Sr from 0.7080 to 0.7090. The integrated stratigraphic data from South China suggest that the onset of the Shuram Excursion is associated with enhanced oxidative continental weathering that delivered radiogenic strontium, as well as sulfate, to the Ediacaran basin.