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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 CommissionтАЩs 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.
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