Report of Paleopedology Commission Business Meeting at XV INQUA Congress (August 8, 1999, Durban)

A. O. Makeev
 
 

Chairpersons: Arnt Bronger (President), John A. Catt (Vice-president) and

Alexander O. Makeev (Secretary)

Present: 34 members

1. Introduction

The Paleopedology Commission was formed at the VII INQUA Congress (Boulder, USA, 1965). Since the IX Congress of the ISSS (International Soil Science Society, Adelaide, Australia, 1968) the Commission has been affiliated to the Soil Genesis, Classification and Cartography Commission of the ISSS and since 1990 to the Stratigraphy Commission of the International Union of Geological Sciences. These links reflect the increasingly multidisciplinary activity of the Commission’s work in relation to the genesis and Quaternary history of non-buried soils and the recognition and interpretation of pre-Quaternary paleosols.

The Commission now has more than 390 corresponding members spread among these three international unions. Commission activities are conducted within 10 working groups.

The commission is fostering the development of an electronic audience. A paleosol electronic mailing list was established in 1996 for those who reported their e-mail addresses. There are currently 160 subscribers on this mailing list with the number continuously growing. Since 1999 the mailing list is combined with the web-board (http://www.fadr.msu.ru/inqua/discussions).

The commission continues to develop its web-site at http://www.fadr.msu.ru/inqua with the amount of accesses varying between 1500 and 2000 per month. The following information is available:

The structure of Paleopedology Commission with the list of Working Groups;

Circulars of forthcoming inter-congress meetings;

An archive of Commission Newsletters since NL-8;

Commission web board Paleosol;

Announcements;

An updated list of Commission members;

Links to related sites.
 
 

2. Newsletters

Since the 1995 Congress, four volumes of Paleopedology Newsletter (Nos. 12-15, totalling 150 pp.) have been distributed to corresponding members. Newsletters include reports on business meetings and scientific sessions, selected abstracts or lists of papers presented at the meetings, announcements on future activities, etc.
 
 

3. Organisational structure

3a. Working groups

In Durban the following Working Groups were confirmed or established:

1. Definitions and terminology, Chairperson J.A. Catt

2. Classification of paleosols, Chairperson W.D. Nettleton

3. Pedostratigraphy, Chairperson R. Morrison

4. Methods of field and laboratory study, Chairperson R. Kemp

5. Paleoseismic activity and paleopedology, Chairperson B. Van Vliet-Lanoe

6. Dating of paleosols, chairperson L.Zoeller

7. Paleosols and Paleoclimatic Change in Eastern and Central Asia (PPCECA), chairperson X.-M. Fang

8. Inter-American group on Paleopedology, chairpersons M. Singer and R. Morrison

9. Geoarchaeology, Chairperson E. Bettis
 
 

 3b. Membership

Due to the fact that paleopedology is a multidisciplinary science, the Paleopedology Commission has now up to 390 corresponding members, representing different approaches to paleosol studies and spread among three International Unions: International Union of Soil Sciences, INQUA and International Union of Geological Sciences. During the Congress INQUA executives strongly recommended us to comply with INQUA byelaws and establish full formal membership (up to 12 for each Commission). Thus 12 full members were elected, representing 9 countries:

R. Amit (Israel)

G. Botha (RSA)

J.A. Catt (UK)

X.M. Fang (China)

R. Kemp (UK)

D. Kroehling (Argentina)

R. Langohr (Belgium)

R. Morrison (USA)

D. Nettleton (USA)

M. Singer (USA)

B. Van Vliet-Lanoe (France)

L. Zoeller (Germany)
 

 For the future the Commission will also maintain its strategy towards corresponding members. Corresponding membership is open to everybody who expressed interest in Commission activities and sent a contact address to the secretary. Nevertheless we need to update the list of corresponding members from time to time to keep effective communication. For this reason it was decided to ask members to re-confirm their interest in Commission activities by completing a form that will be distributed.

3c. Election of officers

The following Commission officers were elected:

President: Prof. Dr. Arnt Bronger (Germany)

Vice-President: Dr. Alan Palmer (New Zealand)

Secretary: Dr. Alexander Makeev (Russia)

According to the decision of INQUA Executive Committee Paleopedology Commission will liase with INQUA Vice-President Prof. An Zhisheng (P.R. China).
 
 

4. Plans for the next inter-Congress period

4a. Future Inter-Congress Meetings

The structure of Commission research interests is reflected in the program of our International meetings, where we always focus both on Quaternary and Pre-Quaternary buried and surface paleosols, developed on different types of parent material (loess, tephra, fluvial deposits, glacial sediments and hard rock). For the years 2000-2003 the Commission plans five International meetings:

1. V International Symposium and Field Workshop on Paleopedology (ISFWP) in Suzdal, Russia, July 2000 (Second Circular included in this Newsletter).

2. VI ISFWP in Mexico City (Mexico, 2001). A first announcement is included in NL-16.

3. VII ISFWP in China, Beijing and Lanzhou, 2002, together with Neotectonics Commission and Loess Commission.

4. Paleopedology Symposium at XVII International Soil Science Congress (Bangkok, Thailand, 2002).

5. Paleopedology Symposium at XVI INQUA Congress in Reno, Nevada, USA, August 2003.
 

 4b. Future publications arise from Commission meetings. Some are already in progress:

1. Papers presented at the III ISFWP in Rauischholzhausen, Germany 1997 will be published in a special issue of Catena.

2. Papers presented at the Paleopedology Symposium at ISSS Congress, France, 1998, will be published in special issues of Catena and Quaternary International.

3. Papers presented at the Paleopedology symposium at INQUA Congress in Durban, 1999 will be published in Quaternary International.

Additional publications will come also from future meetings.

4c. Newsletters and electronic discussion table

With support from INQUA the Commission plans to publish four issues of Newsletter on an annual basis. The Commission will further focus on electronic dissemination of materials through combined Paleosol mailing list/web-board. Leon Folmer volunteered to moderate a free discussion on definitions, used in paleopedology. This was approved by business meeting participants.

4d. Project-based activity

During the Congress INQUA General Assembly confirmed its strategy towards project-based activity. Commission members are welcome to submit project proposals to Commission officers. The guidelines remained the same as before and may be downloaded from INQUA web site at http://www.inqua.nlh.no, or requested from Commission secretary A. Makeev (makeev@fadr.msu.ru). International groups and cooperation with other INQUA Commissions are among the priorities.

Currently the Commission plans the following projects:

Paleosols and Paleoclimate in Central and Eastern Asia (in cooperation with Loess Commission);

Influence of neotectonic activities on paleosol records (in cooperation with Neotectonic Commission);

Concepts of pedostratigraphic units;

Development of a unified horizon terminology and classification of paleosols.