Inter-Congress Meetings

The following meetings of Paleopedology Commission have been scheduled for current Inter-Congress period (1995-1999):

1. Inter-Congress Meeting "Recent and Paleo-Pedogenesis as tools for modelling past and future Global Change", 21-26 Sept. 1997.

At the INQUA-Congress in Berlin in August 1995 A. Bronger, J.A. Catt, A.O. Makeev, V.O. Targulian agreed to have a joint meeting of INQUA Commission on Paleopedology and Commission V of ISSS. The primary goal of this meeting is to foster cooperative research of paleosols both by soil scientists and quaternary geologists.

P. Felix-Henningsen, Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, University of Giessen and A. Bronger will form the Organizing Committee. The meeting will be held in Rauischholzhausen near Marburg, Iniversity of Giessen/Germany.

The schedule will be the following:

• September 22-23, 1997: Pre-Conference tours (e.g. loess profiles in the vicinity of Mainz and Ludwigshafen);
  
• September 24-26, 1997: IWM in Rauischholzhausen near Marburg (3days);
  
• September 27-28, 1997: Post-Conference tour (deep-weathering mantles of upper Cretaceous and Tertiary period) in the Rhenish Massiv and Vogelsberg.
  

The topics of the tentative program will include:

a) Polygenetic concepts of Quaternary and pre-Quaternary surface paleosols.
b) Evironmental implications of paleopedogenic features for agriculture, forestry etc.
c) Buried Quaternary and pre-Quaternary paleosols as tools for reconstructing and modelling environmental changes.
d) (Paleo)pedology and Archaeology.
e) Methodological recognition of soils with relic properties: definition, classification and modelling.

The program is tentative because comments from all colleagues are desired. It should include papers and discussions regarding definition especially of non-buried paleosols and their delimitation from vetusols and modern soils as well as pedostratigraphy and paleosol classification. Also Working Groups should present further results. The first circular will be sent out in summer 1996.

2. Inter-Congress-Meeting in Lanzhou/China ca. July 25 - August 15, 1998 (incl. Pre- and Post-Conf. Tour)

X.M. Fang, Chairman of the Working Group "Paleosols and Paleoclimatic Change in Eastern and Central Asia (PPCECA)" offered an "International Symposium on Paleosols and Global Climatic Change". It will be organized together with the "Subcommission of Soils and Geology (SCSG)" of China (also established as a WG in our PP-Commission) in conjunction with "Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau Association of China". Dr. X.M. Fang offers a pre-Conf tour from Lanzhou via Western Loess Plateau and eastern Tibetan Plateau to Chengdu and a post-Conf. tour from Lanzhou via northern and central Tibetan Plateau to Lhasa. First details will be worked out by X.M. Fang, A. Bronger and A.O. Makeev on a meeting jointly organised by the two WG's PPCECA and SCSG together with the INQUA Paleopedology Commission on August 16-18 in Harbin/China. The Paleopedology Commission therefore submitted a proposal for an INQUA project "Paleosols on the Western Loess Plateau and Northeastern Tibetan Plateau as witnesses of climatic changes and uplift of Tibetan Plateau" to support the research in this important region as well as the Symposium 1998. The discussions regarding definition pedostratigraphy and classification of paleosols will again be major topics of this meeting. Again Working Groups should present further results.

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