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Newsletter
No.20
October 2005
Commission officers:
President: Dr. Edoardo A.C. Costantini
Experimental Institute for Soil Study and Conservation
Piazza M. D'Azeglio 30, 50121
www.soilmaps.it,
Phone: +39-055-24912
Fax: +39-055-241485
e-mail costantini@issds.it
Vice-President: Dr. Alexander O. Makeev
MSU-RAS Soil Institute, Science Park of Moscow University, building 1,
Vorobyovy Goru, 119899,
Phone: +7 095 930 8952
Fax: +7 095 930 8963
e-mail: makeev@fadr.msu.ru
Secretary: Dr. Francesco Malucelli
Geological Seismic and Soil Survey - Emilia-Romagna Region Italy
Viale Silvani, 4/3
40122 Bologna
Italy
Phone: +39-051 284724
Fax: +39-051 284208
E-mail: fmalucelli@regione.emilia-romagna.it
Paleopedology Commission liaison with
IUSS, INQUA and EGU
CONTENT:
Dear
colleagues,
Herewith
you find the newsletter for the years 2003-2005, which highlights many
achievements in the paleopedology community. During these years, the group has
achieved the status of a commission inside the International Union of Soil
Science, a sub-commission of the International Union for Quaternary Research,
and a sub-division of the European
Geosciences Union:
"Sub-Division K. Soil as a record of the past".
Paleopedology
group members have organized several events in recent years, including, Session 67 - S23: “The Soil Record of
Quaternary Climate Change” at the 2003 XVI INQUA Congress at Reno (USA) ; the
2004 VI International Symposium and Field Workshop on Paleopedology at Florence
(Italy), titled: “Paleosols: memory of ancient landscapes and living bodies of
present ecosystems”; the 2005 VII International Symposium and Field Workshop on
Paleopedology, within the scope of the congress “Global Soil Change:
Time-Scales and Rates of Pedogenic Processes” (GSC-MÉXICO-2005)”; also
during 2005, the session “Micromorphology of soil- and palaeosoil development”
was part of the European Geosciences Union General
Assembly in Vienna.
Paleopedology
still continues to attract many scientists. During the
The wide
distribution of paleopedological studies provides testimony that few “pure”
paleopedologists exist, but rather the field of paleopedology consists of many
scientists from disciplines such as soil science, geology, geography, and
archaeology, who study the imprint on soils of environmental changes for a wide
array of different aims. The
dissemination of paleopedological knowledge in so many research fields provides
great gratification to our discipline, but it can be a source of dispersion and
methodological bewilderment. Thus the Paleopedology group has great relevance
in providing scientific exchange and coordination between researchers with
different scientific backgrounds and disciplinary structures.
Within this
Letter from the President I wish to highlight a few of the activities of Paleopedology group members
around the world. I conclude that paleopedologists are many and they act in
many countries, but it seems that only in
Another
formalized group of paleopedologists comes from
Looking
through the literature, abstracts and proceedings of the meetings, the current
state of the art of paleopedology points to a set of issues and methodologies
that seem to be currently most fashionable among paleopedologists; I attempt to
distil a list of them:
i)
The
possibility of using paleosols for precise information about environmental
changes
ii)
Doing
integrated geological, geomorphological, sedimentological, and paleopedological
survey to reconstruct the environment changes
iii)
The
utility of paleosols for understanding long-term rates of pedogenesis (or
specific pedogenic processes)
iv)
Including
paleopedology as an integral component of models of soil formation
v)
Processes
in paleosols formed in aeolian and volcanic deposits
vi)
The
use of paleosols and pedostratigraphy in Quaternary geological mapping
vii)
The
study of the regolith to connect the soil surface to the deep rock
viii)
Paleosols
and archeology
ix)
Development
of micromorphological methodologies in the study of paleosols, e.g., study of
pedofeature sequences.
x)
Application
of sophisticated micromorphological techniques, e.g., scanning electron
microscope analysis (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
xi)
Integrated
physical, chemical, geochemical, micromorphological, and mineralogical analysis
xii)
Luminescence,
cosmogenic nuclides, paleomagnetism and other methods of soil and sediment
dating
What about the future
activities of the group? Besides meetings, which will likely increase in
number, and hopefully in participation, some good publications in international
journals, and stimulating discussions on our web site, a set of ideas were
suggested at our last meeting in Mexico city; they were: i) the publication of a chapter on advances in
paleopedology inside the “Manual of Pedology” that Prof. Mermut, chairman of
the Division I of the IUSS, is going to edit, ii) establishing an international
intensive course on paleopedology, and iii) the creation of “interest groups” to take the place of the past working groups. Some
details on these ideas are reported in the minutes of the
Looking forward to seeing all of you
in
Edoardo A.C. Costantini
The title
of the book is HANDBOOK OF PEDOLOGY it will contain all the subject matters
under Division I. There will be extra chapters linked to other Divisions. It
will be about 1000 pages and nearly 100 scientists will be involved.
As for
Paleopedology, the paragraphs of
the chapter could include the following issues
1. Cultural value of
Paleosols
2. Dating of Paleosols
3. Methods of field
and laboratory study
4. Paleosols and
Geoarchaeology
5. Paleosols and
paleoclimatic change
6. Paleosols
classification and correlation
7. Paleoseismic
activity and paleopedology
8. Pedostratigraphy
and mapping
9. Rates of soil
forming processes
10. ……………..possible
others according to suggestions
Minutes of the business meeting during the congress: GLOBAL
SOIL CHANGE: TIME-SCALES AND RATES OF PEDOGENIC PROCESSES”
(GSC-MÉXICO-2005)
(VII International Symposium and Field Workshop
on Paleopedology)
Chairpersons: Arnt Bronger and Edoardo A.C. Costantini
AGENDA
• Past meetings and proceedings
• Next meetings
• Structure and future of the commission
• Groups of interest
PAST AND MEXICO 2005 MEETINGS AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS
The president reminded that the last
two meetings of the PP group were held by the INQUA, at
For the
After a general discussion, it is agreed that the local organizers, S. Sedov
and E. Solleiro, will coordinate the activity of finding the best solution for
the publication of the proceedings and will carry on the editing activity, with
the help of D. Richter. Elsevier should be asked to publish the approved papers
of the Mexico 2005 meeting in Catena and/or Geoderma. Since the number of
papers for special issue is limted by Elsevier, it was suggested to split the
papers submitted in two groups, according to their subjects: those with a more
pedological issue to be published on a Soil Science journal, the ones with a
broader subject on a special volume of the “Revista Mexicana de Geologia”. C.
Siebe and D. Richter are indicated to be the editors of this special volume.
STRUCTURE AND FUTURE OF THE COMMISSION
E. Costantini reminds that the group
is part of the IUSS and the INQUA, and notices that members of the group take
part to a number of other organizations and events, e.g. in the year 2004 the
International Geology Conference at Florence and the International
Micromorphology Conference at Adana, in 2005 the European Geosciences Union
meeting at Wien, and many others. Especially in the field of the relationships
between Paleopedology and Archeology, the members of the group have several
opportunities to participate to different other groups and activities. His
comment is that this fact is to be considered positively, as it testifies the
topical interest and relevance of the Paleopedology. However, the great
opportunity offered to the members of the group to widen and deepen their
interests would be improved if the participation to the other groups’
initiatives was followed by a discussion and shared with the other members of
the Paleopedology group. In this sense, the participation to our main year
meeting assumes an utmost relevance. There are also other ways to share our
experiences. One of the most straightforward mean is to report them in our web
sites, which is perfectly managed by our vice-president, A. Makeev. Another one
is to publish an electronic version of the newsletter, collecting all major
events and communication of the year. Also in this case the activity can have
our vice-president and the secretary, F. Malucelli, as protagonists.
In addition to the above mentioned
proposals, the president introduced the ideas of i) the publication of a book
on Paleopedology, ii) the setting up of an international intensive course on
Paleopedology, and iii) the creation of groups of interest among the
Paleopedologists.
Regarding the idea of the publication
of a book on Paleopedology the participants debated about two possibilities: i)
a revised version of the Handbook on Paleopedology
ii) a chapter on Paleopedology inside the “Manual of Pedology” which prof.
Mermut, chairman of the Division I of the IUSS is going to edit.
After lengthy discussions the second Participants supported the second idea..
The idea of the creation of different
groups of interest, inside the Paleopedology, could support the realization of
the chapter within the above mentioned book and at the same time a tool to
popularize Paleopedology. In practice, people interested in the following
activities should give their name, and a few of reference publications, to the
vice-president, who would prepare a list to be published on our web page.
GROUPS OF INTEREST (in alphabetical
order)
1. Cultural value of Paleosols
2. Dating of Paleosols
3. Methods of field and laboratory study
4. Paleosols and Geoarchaeology
5. Paleosols and paleoclimatic change
6. Paleosols classification and correlation
7. Paleoseismic activity and paleopedology
8. Pedostratigraphy and mapping
9. Rates of soil forming processes
The last proposal is the organization
of an international intensive course on Paleopedology. This project could be
realized through an Erasmus program, or by means of new technologies, such as
teleconference. The members of the group are solicited to step forward.
From:
Francesco Malucelli (f.malucelli@email.it) and Stefano Carnicelli (stefano.carnicelli@unifi.it)
In the last European Geosciences Union General Assembly -
Inside the EGU-SSS a sub-division in paleopedology was created since the
beginning of EGU activity: the Sub-Division K: Soil as a record of the past
(former Sub-Division I: Paleopedology and Archeopedology) is led by Marie Agnes
Courty (
A considerable number of people involved in Quaternary science and
paleopedology are active in the EGU and the sub-division "Soil as a record
of the past" is a great occasion of confrontation for our discipline; the
presence of our secretary as officer in the sub-division could be a further
linking opportunity toward the earth sciences.
During the EGU 2005 General Assembly, a grand total of 23 communications
were presented, within 8 different sessions, who reported a significant
utilization of “soils of the past” to gather data concerning the most varied
topics. This against 5 papers presented in the only session specifically
dealing with Paleopedology (SSS2).
What does this mean?
First, it means that the interest in the soil as a record is surging; in
a sense, soil is already a “success” archive, so why a specialized session?
Second, it means that the need for experimental ability to exploit the
soil archive is growing. This means that major methodological issues concerning
this point could well require further insight; it is well known that treatment
of methodological issues gets a lot from open, possibly face-to-face, debate. It
goes without saying that the various sessions in which past soils information
is, often widely, discussed are not the right places for such debate. The
fellows in these sessions actually want to use the soil as a tool, and expect
to get appropriate methodological suggestions from other places.
The nature and extent of open methodological issues concerning
exploitation of soil as a record is vast. Just to touch a relevant point,
inadequate attention has been paid to the issue of taphonomy, an issue that is
fundamental for any other kind of past record investigation. This includes both
“soil taphonomy”, i.e. the problem of soil post-burial modification, affecting
buried soil identification, correlation and assessment as indicator of the
past, and “within-soil taphonomy”, that is, the problems of formation and
temporal evolution of specific archives like soil organic matter, biogenic
opal, secondary carbonates etc.. Another “hot” topic is dating; soil is
intrinsically more datable than most geologic deposits, but the specific
methodological problems are serious and complex.
So, on one side, the need and importance of a specialised forum is
clear-cut. An EGU session is naturally not the only one, and actually it is the
junior one. However, it may take a special value from two different, unique,
aspects. EGU is an extremely interdisciplinary forum; the opportunities for
meeting and discussing with the widest possible range of fellows from other
disciplines, that may have original and stimulating contributions, is specially
great. Second, EGU is not just about Quaternary, and has no focused time
perspective. It is to be noted that methodological contributions from
“pre-Quaternary” paleopedology are distinguishing themselves, in the latest
years, for originality, no doubt due to the harshness of the experimental
problems these researches face. It is then quite a great chance to bring all
paleopedology together, from Carboniferous to historical archaeology, because
there is a lot to learn.
Report on the VI International
Conference on Cryopedology with a special section on paleosols,
The Cryosol Working Group of the IUSS and IPA held the IV International
Conference on Cryopedology from August 1-8 in
Over 60 participants attended the meeting from eight different countries
representing many different areas of soil science but all with an active
interest in Cryopedology. The first 4
days in
Three days were then spent on a very interesting field trip to the
Pinega Region. The field trip focused on “Soils and Perennial Underground Ice
of Glaciated and Karst Landscapes in Northern European
The Pinega State Reserve was visited and information was presented on
the region as well as a very interesting
The Cryosol WG was formed in Pushchino in December of 1992 and of note
at this meeting was the large number of “young scientists” who took part in the
discussions and made several very interesting presentations. This was very significant to many of the older
founders of the Cryosol Working Group as we know the work and interest in
Cryosols will continue into the future.
Regions with permafrost are the areas predicted to have the most drastic
effects of global climate change and as these areas are used for more mineral
extraction, and visited by more and more people more and more ecological
problems will develop and need to be addressed.
All of us who attended were very impressed by the organizational work
done by our Russian colleagues. All of
the logistical arrangements were excellent and the meeting ran very smoothly at
all times. The field trip was super with
many soil profiles to discuss with a very informative and detailed tour
guide. Meeting was very scientific and
every one had a good time and all left with a very good impression of the
organizational ability of the local hosts.
Detailed information on the conference can be found at the WWW site of
the Cryosol Working Group http://igras.geonet.ru/cwg/.
Report on the meeting of the Mexican
Members of the Mexican Union for Quaternary Research (UMEC) in their
last meeting within the framework the 4th National Congress of Earth
Sciences 03.11.2004 decided to organize biannually field seminars of UMEC. The
first Seminar “Recent and past environmental change in Tlaxcala” will take
place 9-11 November 2005, being organized by the interdisciplinary group from
the Institutes of Geology and Geophysics, UNAM, Mexico. The aim of the
excursion is to present the extensive sedimentary sequence of the Tlaxcala basin
as a continuous sedimentary record from Tertiary to present. The UNAM
Paleopedology team (Elizabeth Solleiro, Sergey Sedov and Jorge Gama) will
present the tepetate-paleosol sequence, exposed in Barranca Tlalpan and
Barranca del Mamut, earlier demonstrated for the VI ISFWP post-conference tour
in 2001. A wide set of chemical, mineralogical, micromorphological, rock
magnetic data accumulated since then will be discussed with the Mexican
quaternarists directly on site. The special importance will be given to linking
the paleosol record to the underlying Plio-Pleistocene lacustrine sequence,
studied by Gloria Villaclara.
The decision to dedicate part of the first field seminar of UMEC to the
paleosols of Tlaxcala basin demonstrates the growing interest to paleopedological
research in the Mexican quaternarists’ community.
2006
Next year the Paleopedology group will
meet in
All members
of the group are invited to join the
1.6A symposium "Imprint
of Environmental Change on Paleosols " at the IUSS congress of
The
Symposium will encompass the different
issues which are now going on in the paleopedological studies: “paleosols and
environmental changes”, "paleosols, pedostratigraphy and soil
mapping", "timing the soil forming processes", "paleosols
as part of our cultural heritage", “paleosols and archeology”.
Convenor: Edoardo A. C. Costantini (
Co-convenor: Alexander O. Makeev (
Co-convenor: Francesco Malucelli (
The
Commission 1.6 will hold their business meeting on Tuesday, July 11, at 1700.
We must underline that
it is particularly important to have a large and qualified participation to the
symposium, because it is the first time for us to present our activities as a
IUSS Commission, so we have to demonstrate how relevant is Paleopedology inside
the Soil Sciences.
The key lecture of the
session will be given by Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, of the
In
Symposium 1.6B Amazonian Dark Earth
Soils (Terra Preta and Terra Preta Nova): A Tribute to Wim Sombroek
Wim Sombroek in his monumental Soils
of the Amazon (1966) not only provided the baseline for the soils of this
enormously significant region, but also brought the anthropogenic terra preta
(black earth) and terra mulata (brown earth) soils to the attention of the
outside world. The symposium will focus on the following general theme:
Amazonian dark earth soils and global climate; implications for soil fertility
and land use; and understanding how
Convenor: A. M. G. A. WinklerPrins (
Co-convenor: William. I. Woods (
The business meeting if the commission
will be held during the conference, as well as the renewal of the commission’s
officers.
The Organizing Committee for the 18th
WCSS have extended the deadline for submission of abstracts from
participation as possible. The symposia will be finalized by
The 3rd and Final Announcement with these
dates are now shown on the WCSS web site, www.18wcss.org.
European Geosciences
The draft
program about soil (the definitive program will be refined in September)
contemplates three session concerning Paleopedology:
SSS 3.
Micromorphology in Geoarchaeology: human impact and environmental changes.
Convener:
Peter Kuehn , co-convener: Hedi Oberhaensli
SSS 19.
Soil responses to past abrupt climate change: proxies, processes and timing
Convener:
Stefano Carnicelli, co-conveners: Pierre Antoine and Rob Kemp.
SSS 20.
Linkages between soil and fire history over geologic times
Convener:
Marie-Agnes Courty, co-convener:
2007
In the year 2007 we will have two
objectives. The main one is at the end of 2007 International conference of
INQUA, in
Two symposia are proposed for INQUA,
the first one related to classical paleopedology theme, to be formulated
(suggestions are welcome), the second one will be a join session with another
INQUA subcommissions, the Loess Subcommission of the Stratigraphy and
Chronology Commission. The title is "Pedogenesis of aeolian
deposits". Convenors will be Martin Iriondo and Ludwig Zoeller.
At present, we are waiting the green light for these symposia from the
organizers.
In
Held in Milano (Italy) - Late June 2007
Organized by:
University of Milano - Earth Sciences Department
University of Tuebingen - Geography Department
University of Genova - Territory and Resources Department
Italian National Council of Research - I.D.P.A.
IUSS Commission of Paleopedology
INQUA Subcommision of Paleopedology
Actual title of conference, time and schedule, call for papers and
presentations, contact person(s), and all details will circulate in the usual
channels of the international paleopedology scientific group as soon as
possible. Tentatively, we are planning two days of conference and three days of
field trip. Moreover we are going to organize two days of workshop of the
Archaeological Soil Micromorphology Working Group after the conference - field
trip.
2008
By 10-15 January 2008,
Hema Achyuthan is willing to organize a paleopedology meeting in
The focus
of this meeting will be on:
1. Genesis of soil on different parent material.
2. Palaeosols as palaeoclimate indicator.
3. Tools and methodology adopted for geochronological studies of palaeosols.
4. Palaeosols, Man-land relationship and climate change.