Zonation of flora and vegetation of the Northern declivity of the Karakoram/Kunlun mountains (SW Xinjiang China)

Botanical results of the “Sino-German Joint Expedition to K2, 1986” are presented with remarks on vegetation of SW Kashgaria, the W Kunlun Shan and the N declivity of the central Karakoram mountains. The vertical and horizontal zonation of the vegetation and flora of a cross-section of the Karakoram/Kunlun N declivity from the edge of the Tarim basin to the summit-pyramid of K2 is outlined. The transect covers altitudes between c. 1300 and 5200 m. Altitudinal vegetation belts distinguished along the transect, their extension, and characteristic species are: An annotated list of 301 species collected (1 Charophyta, 2 Pteridophyta, 6 Gymnospermae, 292 Angiospermae) is given. Floristical and vegetation features of the Karakoram/Kunlun N declivity are discussed in connection with environmental factors and their variation, and in relation to pleistocene glaciation.     

The effect of the large-scale mantle flow field on the Iceland hotspot track

Fluid dynamical simulations were carried out in order to investigate the effect of the large-scale mantle flow field and the depth of the plume source on the structure of the Iceland plume through time. The time-dependent location and shape of the plume in the Earth's mantle was calculated in a global model and it was refined in the upper mantle using a 3D Cartesian model box. Global flow was computed based on density heterogeneities derived from seismic tomography. Plate motion history served as a velocity boundary condition in both models. Hotspot tracks of the plume conduits and the plume head were calculated and compared to actual bathymetry of the North Atlantic. If a plume source in the lowermost mantle is assumed, the calculated surface position of the plume conduit has a southward component of motion due to southward flow in the lower mantle. Depending on tomography model, assumed plume age and buoyancy the southward component is more or less dominating. Plume models having a source at the 660 km discontinuity are only influenced by flow in the upper mantle and transition zone and hence rather yield westward hotspot motion. Many whole-mantle plume models result in a V-shaped track, which does not match the straight Greenland–Iceland–Faroe ridge. Models without strong southward motion, such as for a plume source at 660 km depth, match actual bathymetry better. Plume tracks were calculated from both plume conduits and plume heads. A plume head of 120 K anomalous temperature gives the best match between plume head track and bathymetry.     

Ultra-high degree spherical harmonic analysis and synthesis using extended-range arithmetic

We present software for spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) and spherical harmonic synthesis (SHS), which can be used for essentially arbitrary degrees and all co-latitudes in the interval (0°, 180°). The routines use extended-range floating-point arithmetic, in particular for the computation of the associated Legendre functions. The price to be paid is an increased computation time; for degree 3,000, the extended-range arithmetic SHS program takes 49 times longer than its standard arithmetic counterpart. The extended-range SHS and SHA routines allow us to test existing routines for SHA and SHS. A comparison with the publicly available SHS routine GEOGFG18 by Wenzel and HARMONIC SYNTH by Holmes and Pavlis confirms what is known about the stability of these programs. GEOGFG18 gives errors <1 mm for latitudes [-89°57.5′, 89°57.5′] and maximum degree 1,800. Higher degrees significantly limit the range of acceptable latitudes for a given accuracy. HARMONIC SYNTH gives good results up to degree 2,700 for almost the whole latitude range. The errors increase towards the North pole and exceed 1 mm at latitude 82° for degree 2,700. For a maximum degree 3,000, HARMONIC SYNTH produces errors exceeding 1 mm at latitudes of about 60°, whereas GEOGFG18 is limited to latitudes below 45°. Further extending the latitudinal band towards the poles may produce errors of several metres for both programs. A SHA of a uniform random signal on the sphere shows significant errors beyond degree 1,700 for the SHA program SHA by Heck and Seitz.     

Helsinki —aspects of urban development and planning

Within a typical process of urbanization several particularities can be noticed in the Helsinki region: The peninsular location does not allow a zonal expansion of the city. It has rather enforced a tight spatial sectoral expansion with specific problems of traffic and land use. The retarded industrialization has led to an unusually fast population increase without control until the 1960s. The rapid growth created a twofold problem: pressure of population versus inadequate housing, small residences versus high rents; consequently selective migration and small size families. The number of jobs rapidly increased and displaced the residential population of the inner city. This resulted in high traffic which neither the few main roads nor the public transport system of central Helsinki could cope with. These problems correspond to the essential tasks of urban planning: the bottle neck in housing construction has to be broken; the growth of jobs in the central city needs to be stopped as well as the displacement of the residential population. Decentralization, especially of the private tertiary and quartary sector may help. A system of central places within the region would diminish the commuting traffic. Transportation may be solved by a concept of growth points and growth axis along the railway lines. This grown concept of Helsinki should be thought over under the now foreseeable conditions of population stagnation.     

A Simplified, Accurate and Fast Method for Lithium Isotope Analysis of Rocks and Fluids, and δ7Li Values of Seawater and Rock Reference Materials

We report a new approach to conduct fast and accurate lithium isotope ratio measurements by MC-ICP mass spectrometry after wet chemical sample preparation. In contrast to most previously published methods our MC-ICP-MS set-up did not use a desolvating system to achieve appropriate ion beam intensities and, therefore, was less affected by matrix-induced shifts of the instrumental mass bias. As the total lithium background and build-up in the sample introduction system was low, previous sample residues could be washed out by an extended uptake of the new sample. Elimination of a nitric acid rinse step increased the sample throughput by a factor of two and allowed the instrumental mass bias drift to be tracked more precisely. δ⁷Li values of powdered silicate rock reference materials and seawater obtained in this study revealed good accuracy and an overall analytical uncertainty of typically 0.5‰ (2s). On the basis of a comparison between our lithium isotope data and compiled literature data, we recommend preliminary average δ⁷Li values for seawater (+30.8‰) and several silicate rock reference materials (BHVO-1: +5.0‰; JA-1: +5.6‰; JB-2: +4.8‰). The compilation of published δ⁷Li values for seawater suggests that the observed large lithium isotope differences are due to inter-method and/or interlaboratory bias. Most recently published δ⁷Li values for seawater show little variation and confirm a constant lithium isotope composition (at the sub ‰ level) of seawater in well mixed ocean basins.