PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM AND FIELD WORKSHOP ON PALEOPEDOLOGY IN RAUISCHHOLTSHAUSEN, GERMANY, SEPTEMBER, 1997

PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM AND FIELD WORKSHOP ON PALEOPEDOLOGY IN RAUISCHHOLTSHAUSEN, GERMANY, SEPTEMBER, 1997.
Preface and contents to a special issue of Catena”” (Volume 41, nos 1-2, 2000)

Edited by John Catt, Peter Felix-Henningsen, Rob Kemp, Thomas Scholten

PREFACE

This special issue of Catena contains 15 of the papers presented at an International Working Meeting on Paleopedology held in September 1997 at Rauischholzhausen Castle near Marburg, the conference centre of the Justus-Liebig University of Giessen in Germany. The meeting was attended by 70 participants from 12 countries, and was organised jointly by Commission VI Paleopedology of INQUA and Commission V Soil Genesis, Classification and Cartography of ISSS now IUSS , under the title ‘‘Recent and paleo-pedogenesis as tools for modelling past and future global change’’. This topic indicates one of the major long-term aims of international paleopedological research, and the papers included in this volume can only cover a limited range of aspects. Much more research on the genesis, distribution, stratigraphy and dating of paleosols will be required before a valid predictive model of climatic fluctuation can be developed from the paleosol record. Also the paleopedological data need to be integrated with geomorphological, sedimentological and paleoecological results, though some of the papers in this volume attempt to cover these interdisciplinary links. The 15 papers can be grouped into five topics.

1. Polygenetic aspects of Quaternary and older paleosols

Many paleosols formed in old landscapes preserve evidence of past environmental, especially climatic changes. Some of the various types of evidence and the ways in which it can be interpreted are given in papers by C. Muggler and P. Buurman on oxisols in Brazil, P. Kallis et al. on Tertiary freshwater carbonates in Germany, and P. Felix-Henningsen on late Pleistocene soils on Saharan dunes in Niger.

2. Recognition, definition and classification of paleosols

During the meeting these topics led to vehement discussion, which demonstrated the wide range of opinions that have developed, especially over definition and classification of paleosols. The papers by Nettleton et al. and Reuter suggest ways of limiting the arguments and improving communication among paleopedologists. The editors regard them as helpful at the present time, though they are perhaps unlikely to be fully supported by all paleopedologists. Other papers by Kleber and Faust et al. describe some of the difficulties that can arise in recognition and interpretation of surface relict paleosols.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

John Catt, Peter Felix-Henningsen, Rob Kemp, Thomas Scholten, Preface, pp. 1-2

Cristine C. Muggler, Peter Buurman, Erosion, sedimentation and pedogenesis in a polygenetic oxisol sequence in Minas Gerais, Brazil, pp. 3-17

Peter Kallis, Klaus E. Bleich, Karl Stahr, Micromorphological and geochemical characterization of Tertiary `freshwater carbonates' locally preserved north of the edge of the Miocene Molasse Basin (SW Germany), pp. 19-42

P. Felix-Henningsen, Paleosols on Pleistocene dunes as indicators of paleo-monsoon events in the Sahara of East Niger, pp. 43-60

W.D. Nettleton, C.G. Olson, D.A. Wysocki, Paleosol classification: Problems and solutions, Catena pp. 61-92

Gerhard Reuter, A logical system of paleopedological terms, pp. 93-109

Arno Kleber, Compound soil horizons with mixed calcic and argillic properties --- examples from the northern Great Basin, USA, pp. 111-131

D. Faust, F. Diaz del Olmo, R. Baena Escudero, Soils in the Holocene alluvial sediments of the Rio Fraja Valley, Spain: in situ or soil-sediments?, pp. 133-142

H. Rittweger, The "Black Floodplain Soil" in the Amneburger Becken, Germany: a lower Holocene marker horizon and indicator of an upper Atlantic to Subboreal dry period in Central Europe?,pp. 143-164

Birgit Terhorst, The influence of Pleistocene landforms on soil-forming processes and soil distribution in a loess landscape of Baden--Wurttemberg (south-west Germany), pp. 165-179

A. Bronger, P. Wichmann, J. Ensling, Over-estimation of efficiency of weathering in tropical "Red Soils": its importance for geoecological problems, pp. 181-197

Rupert Bumler, W. Zech, Quaternary paleosols, tephra deposits and landscape history in South Kamchatka, Russia, Catena pp. 199-215

N. Kostic, N. Protic, Pedology and mineralogy of loess profiles at Kapela-Batajnica and Stalac, Serbia, pp. 217-227

Ludwig Zoller, Chronology of upper Pleistocene "red silts" in the Siwalik system and constraints for the timing of the upper palaeolithic in Nepal, pp. 229-235

Alexander L. Alexandrovskiy, Holocene development of soils in response to environmental changes: the Novosvobodnaya archaeological site, North Caucasus, Catena pp. 237-248

Elena I. Alexandrovskaya, Alexander L. Alexandrovskiy, History of the cultural layer in Moscow and accumulation of anthropogenic substances in it, pp. 249-259

Full texts of these papers are available at: http://www.elsevier.nl/inca/tree.