"Paleopedology Commission Business Meeting report at the VII International Conference and field workshop on Paleopedology"



Florence the 7th of June 2004

Communications of the President and floor interventions:

1. Organizational Issues of Paleopedology Commission: status in the International Scientific Communities and internal structure.

The President, Edoardo Costantini, reads a letter from the president of IUSS about the new established Paleopedology Commission in the IUSS, which will run alongside the present INQUA Paleopedology Subcommission. The discussion is open about the renewal of the representative charges of the group: unanimously, the assembly confirms the charges of Edoardo Costantini, Alexander Makeev and Francesco Malucelli for both Subcommission and Commission. According a suggestion of Peter Jacobs, the assembly states that the changing schedule of the representatives will be the one of the International Scientific Community in which the maximum number of Commission's members are present. The opinion of the people attending the meeting is that IUSS seems to be the most represented, therefore the new officers of the group will be elected in the next International Conference of IUSS at Philadelphia, 2006. The President, Edoardo Costantini, presents a proposal (by Catt and Yaloon) about the founding of a separate society of Paleopedology. After a brief discussion (Jacobs, Bronger, Catto and Costantini) the assembly discards unanimously this proposal due to the logistic problems of a separate society and, above all, the diminished opportunity for keeping interdisciplinary contacts in a separate society. The President, Edoardo Costantini, informs about the forthcoming IUGS meeting in Florence, in which there will be any Paleopedology session. After a brief discussion (Trombino, Rebolledo and Costantini) the assembly underline the requirement of a link with the national committees of IUGS in order to "push" the paleopedological subjects in the Geological Sciences.

2. Current relevant research subjects and projects on Paleopedology. The President, Edoardo Costantini, presents the current main fields of interest of Paleopedology, which are reflected in the sessions of the congress: "Paleosols and environmental change", "Clues of human influence inside soils and paleosols", "Pedostratigraphy and mapping", "Processes of Paleosols formation". There is a suggestion by Yaloon, also supported by Sedov, of a better link between Paleopedology and Archaeology. After a brief discussion (Trombino, Terhorst and Sedov) the assembly supports the proposal of a Joint Meeting on Paleopedology and Archeology in Milano in 2007, not conflicting with the date of the INQUA congress that will be held in Australia.

3. Commission structure and Paleopedology web site.

 The President observes that on our web page there are many Working Groups (WGs) which actually do not seem to be active, and he invites the assembly to consider their suppression. This proposal has also two further reasons: IUSS doesn't provide for the Commission the presence of WGs, as well as INQUA doesn't have thematic WGs, being WGs only foreseen for specific and time-limited research projects. For these reasons, the proposal is to suppress current WGs and put on the page of the Paleopedology web site only groups related to projects, like the WG "Intercontinental relationship of polygenetic paleosols". After a discussion the assembly agrees the President proposal. The President calls the attention to the importance of the updating activity of the Paleopedology web site and emphasizes the work done by the Vice-President Alexander Makeev, our webmaster.

4. Next meetings.

Sedov and Rebolledo present the meeting of Mexico 2005: "global soil change: time-scales and rates of pedogenic processes (GSC-Mexico-2005)".

The assembly and the representative of the meeting decide that the conference will be part of the activities of the Paleopedology Commission.

The President presents the meetings of Philadelphia 2006. There will be two symposia: i) "Imprinting of environmental changes on paleosols", ii) "The Godfather of Terra Preta and Father of Terra Preta Nova: A Symposium in Honor of Wim Sombroek". The first one will be the official Symposium of the Commission and will host the major part of the lectures of the Conference related to Paleopedology. 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". The second symposium, in Honor of Wim Sombroek is organized by Woods and Winkler Prins (USA). A field trip will be organized by Brenda Buck: The Desert Southwest USA Tour 18th World Congress of Soil Science, Philadelphia PA, USA, July 16 to 24. The tour will focus on desert pedology, paleopedology, geomorphology, geoarchaeology, geology, and ecology of the American Southwest between El Paso, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Terhorst and Trombino announce the joint meeting of Milano 2007, related to both Plaeopedology and Archeology and Costantini announces the INQUA congress - Australia 2007. The Indian colleague Achyuthan proposes to held the 2008 meeting in India, at Chennai (Madras).

5. Recent publications and publications of the acts of Florence 2004

Quaternary International published the acts of the meeting held in Suzdal 10 - 16 July 2000; the references are: Quaternary International Volumes 106-107, Pages 1-243 (2003), Paleopedology: V International Symposium and Field workshop, Suzdal, Russia. Edited by A. Makeev and F. Terribile. Sedov presents the two last volumes edited by Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geologicas, with the papers presented during the VI International Symposium on Paleopedology that was held in Mexico (2001). One of these volumes was dedicated to A. Bronger, in recognition of his many years of research in Paleopedology. Costantini informs that the proceedings of the Paleopedology session hold at the IUSS congress of Bangkok 2002 are published on a CD rom and on our web site. The publications of the papers of Paleopedology presented at the INQUA congress of Reno 2003 are in the refereeing stage and will be published on the Journal of the American Geological Society. The discussion is open about the acts of Florence 2004. Catto renovates the availability of the "Quaternary International" journal for the publication of the acts. The assembly agree the proposal of Catto, and after a brief discussion decides to publish the volume with Costantini and Jacobs as guest editors. The deadline for the submission of the papers is January 15, 2005.