New Focus Group PASTSOILS

New Focus Group PASTSOILS: „Paleosol and soil analysis for assessing climate, time and duration of land surface stability of Quaternary terrestrial systems”

International Focus Group within the INQUA Commission on Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History (TERPRO) 

https://ppsg2011.uni-hohenheim.de

Focus Group Leaders: Daniela Sauer (Germany), Rivka Amit (Israel), Sergey Sedov (Mexico)

Paleopedologists used to be organized in INQUA as a TERPRO subcommission. However, since 2007 INQUA has a new structure that does not foresee the existence of subcommissions. Hence, paleopedology was not represented in INQUA from 2007 until 2011.

According to the new structure of INQUA, groups can apply for establishing an International Focus Group or Project:

„INQUA funding for International Focus Groups (IFGs) and projects is designed to kick-start initiatives and international collaborations. Funding is awarded for one or more years during an inter-congress period (projects) or up to two inter-congress periods (IFGs), provided there is sufficient justification of the continued need for financial support“ (cited from http://www.inqua.org/forms.html).

In 2012, we successfully applied for the International Focus Group „PASTSOILS“. The main overall objective of the PASTSOILS Focus Group is to establish a solid base for interpreting paleosols in terms of duration of soil development indicating tectonically and geomorphologically stable periods. Moreover, the importance and spatial pattern of dust production, deposition and incorporation into soils in the Mediterranean region will be evaluated. The present state of the art with respect to dating pedogenic features and new molecular and isotopic methods for palaeo-environmental reconstruction based on paleosols will be reviewed and evaluated. Combining knowledge about duration of pedogenesis derived from soil properties with absolute ages from dating pedogenic features will significantly increase the potential contribution of paleosol studies for developing chronologies of Quaternary continental sedimentary records.

The focus group will provide information to the international scientific community about:

- rates of soil forming processes in different climates

- field and laboratory methods that are useful for assessing the stage of soil development

- methods of dating various pedogenic objects

- soil stratigraphy and interpretation of soil dating

- biological proxies (micro fossils, molecular & isotopic methods for palaeo-environmental reconstruction)

- spatial pattern of dust deposition and incorporation into soils in the Mediterranean region

(cited from the PASTSOILS website at https://ppsg2011.uni-hohenheim.de)

Under the umbrella of the International Focus Group PASTSOILS two projects have been funded by INQUA since 2012. The two projects AEOMED and RAISIN will be introduced in A2. and A3.