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Fabio Scarciglia, Simone Priori, Edoardo A.C. Costantini
From the 10th to the 14th of January 2008, the International Conference & Field Workshop on Paleopedology: “Paleosols, Geomorphic Evolution of landscape and Paleoclimate Change”, organized by Hema Achyuthan (Department of Geology, Anna University), took place in Chennai (Madras), India.
The meeting was inaugurated by Prof. L. Elango (Department of Geology) and Dr. K. Jayaraman, dean of the Anna University, who addressed the welcome to the participants, followed by the opening speech of the President of the Paleopedology Commission, Dr. E.A.C. Costantini, the release of the Abstract Volume by Prof. A. Bronger (University of
Kiel) and the ceremonial Vote to Thanks handled by Hema Achyuthan. The hosts greeted the colleagues coming from abroad, who had given the many Indian young participant an important opportunity of enhancing the quality of their research through an international comparison and exchange of opinions. The President of the Paleopedology Commission,
after having introduced the Paleopedology group as a Commission inside the International Union of Soil Sciences and subcommission of the International Union for Quaternary Research stressed, among other, the importance of involving the emerging countries in the activities of the two Scientific Societies, also by supporting the meetings and conferences organized in those countries.
The introductory key lecture was carried out by Prof. Arnt Bronger, about vetusols and relict soils of south India. About forty oral presentations coupled with a dozen of posters were presented during the whole meeting, the major part of them by young scientists. The contributions included a variety of scientific topics, spanning from the study of paleosols in the framework of geomorphological evolution, stratigraphy and sedimentology, soil genesis, paleoclimate reconstruction and climatic change, geochronology, geochemical and isotopic signature, carbon and microbial dynamics in the earth
ecosystem, soil sustainability, land use and human impact, etc. As a consequence, also methodological approaches were interestingly assorted and sometimes very innovative, especially in a number of multidisciplinary works.
In the first scientific session, chaired by Edoardo Costantini, the following papers were presented: “A stratigraphical and genetical revision of classic Appennine fringe palaeosols” by Stefano Carnicelli, “Late Pleistocene environmental change in a northern sector of the peninsula de Yucatán, Mexico, based on sedimentological and paleopedological proxies” by Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo, “Micromorphological, LA-ICP-MS and radionuclide analyses of two soil transects in Sardinia, Italy: genetic, morphodynamic and chronological implications” by Fabio Scarciglia, and “Paleosols as tools for the
detailed reconstruction of alluvial fan architectures” by Rossano Ciampalini.
Irina Kovda led the second session, during which Stefano Carnicelli spoke about “A pedostratigraphic marker for the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER)”, Simone Priori presented “Pedostratigraphic and geomorphological evidences of Quaternary tectonic activity in a coastal terraces flight of south-west Sicily (Italy)”, Brigitte Urban dealt with the “Characterisation of Fluvisols and sedimentation processes in the Elbe River flood plain, northern Germany, during the Late Holocene”. M.A Bronnikova presented the paper “Late Holocene climate-related change of fluvial activity and floodplain pedogenesis in the upper Dnieper basin (Russian plain)”, Pankaj Srivastava showed “Micromorphology and clay mineralogy of Late Quaternary loess-
paleosols of Kangra intermontane basin, NW Himalayas: Paleoclimatic implications”, Chun Chang Huang “Holocene loess-palaeosol derived from the overbank flood deposit of the Yellow River, China”.
Arnt Bronger was the chairman of the second-day scientific session, initiated by a lecture on “Tephric paleosols on an eroding active plate margin: Waipaoa catchment, East Coast North Island, New Zealand” by Alan Palmer. M.R.G. Sayyed* discussed about “Rare earth element geochemistry of the interbasalatic bole beds (paleosols) from Deccan flood basalts”, followed by Irina Kovda, speaking about “Modern and paleovertisols for the environmetnal paleoreconstructions:
oppurtunities and record potential”. “Geochemical characters of surface and core sediments from Tejocotal reservoir, Hidalgo state, Mexico: a study on environmental and climatic factors” was presented by M.P. Jonathan, whereas “Coastal sand bars and mud dykes of Orissa and north Andhra: ongoing observations” was dealt with by Deepak Bhattacharya.
Brigitte Urban and Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo held the following session, during which Veena U. Joshi spoke about “Textural, mineralogical and grain surface features of the alluvial sediments from a riverine badland along the Pravara basin, Maharashtra, India”, T. Subramani about “Interpretation of rock weathering from geochemistry of soils in Chithar river basin, southern India”.
Fabio Scarciglia was the convener of the afternoon session: P.D. Roy presented “Late Quaternary paleoclimate of the Sonora desert, north-west Mexico: a study based on geochemistry of lacustrine sediments from Laguna Seca de San Felipe”, Amzad Hussain Laskar showed “14C and δ13C depth profile for a forest soil from Chhattisgarh, central
India”, Brigitte Urban discussed about “Geochronological work on coastal sediments in India”, M.G. Yadava dealt with “Grey level measurements in a stalagmite: a proxy for past solar variability”, G. Subrahmanyam spoke about “Diversity and activity of microbial community in the paleosols of Mahi river basin, western India by polyphasic approach”.
The third day was opened by D. Pal with a lecture on “Significance of soils and their mineral formation in geomorphic evolutions and paleopedology”. Alan Palmer was the convener of the following session, which included the presentation “Paleoclimatic implications of the red dune sands (Teris) of southern Tamil Nadu, India” by Joseph Sabu,
“Chemistry and pedology process of calcrete development in Vertisols of Coimbatore area” by Navin Shankar, “Rainfall erosivity in the Kandhamal plateau of Orissa: a theoretical effort for real time administrative assessments” by Deepak Bhattacharya, “Point bar complexes of Chhoti Ganadak river and its implications on palaeoclimate” by D.S. Singh, “Late Quaternary fine deposits of Jammu (J & K State), India – Sediment characteristics, weathering and palaeoclimate” by Vinod Kumar.
The chairperson of the last session was Stefano Carnicelli. The following contributions were presented: “Micromorphological features of shrink-swell soils of India. Part I: Clay pedofetures” dealt with by P. Raja, and “Micromorphological features of shrink-swell soils of India. Part II: Plasmic fabric and carbonates” by U.K. Maurya. Ludmila
Pesochina spoke obout “The late Holocene soil and climate changes recorded in paleosoils of the archaeological monuments in the steppe zone of the Russian plain”, whereas Fabio Scarciglia discussed about “A chronosequence of Quaternary soils on a flight of coastal river terraces in Calabria (South Italy) in the framework of paleoclimatic
change and geomorphological evolution”, and finally Hema Achyuthan illustrated results about “Pedosequence of hardpan calcrete formation: a stratigraphic marker horizon”.
The indoor third day was devoted to the business meeting, whose minutes are reported below. In addition, during the last two days of the workshop, delegates joined field excursions along coastal and inland areas of south India. The main topics observed and discussed in the field were pediments, alluvial and coastal plains, tectonics and seismicity, exhumed spheroidal boulders and weathering profiles exhibiting typical subspherical, onion-like patterns of alteration on
crystalline rocks, tsunamis-affected coastal sites, tropical laterite soil profiles and ferricretes, Holocene fluvial depositional environments and pedogensis.
The intense scientific programme was nicely punctuated by friendly social and cultural events.
MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING OF THE PALEOPEDOLOGY COMMISSION,
held in Chennai, India, 14 January 2008
The group of people dealing with Paleopedology have the status of a Commission in IUSS, within Division 1 (Soil in Space and Time), and in INQUA, within TERPRO commission (Terrestrial Processes). The activities of the group include coordination, as the promotion of international projects, the support of interdisciplinary events, and dissemination, as
proceedings of the meeting, newsletters, mailing list and web site (http://groups.google.com/group/Paleopedologyhttp://groups.google.com/group/Paleopedology).
During the business meeting in Chennai, the President of the commission, Edoardo A.C. Costantini discussed about the next appointments. He proposed the journals for the proceedings of the meeting, “Geomorphology” and “Indian Journal of Geology”. The guest editors for these proceedings will be Alan Palmer for “Geomorphology”
and Brigitte Urban for “Indian Journal of Geology”.
The president showed the last meetings proceedings about paleopedology. In fall 2008, a special number of “Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science”, will collect the papers presented by the commision members during the WCSS 2006 in Philadelphia. In the last year, a volume of From the 10th to the 14th of January 2008, the International
Conference & Field Workshop on Paleopedology: “Paleosols, Geomorphic Evolution of landscape and Paleoclimate Change”, organized by Hema Achyuthan (Department of Geology, Anna University), took place in
Chennai (Madras), India.
The president also presented the next meetings where the members of the Paleopedology group are going to present their works. The first ones will be the EGU (European Geoscience Union) General Assembly in Vienna, from 13rd to 18th April 2008, and Eurosoil 2008, from 25th to 29th August, another time in Vienna.
During the EGU, four sessions will be dedicated to Paleopedology: “Soils and pedosediments as environmental archivies of the last 130,000 years” (SSS11), “Evolution and properties of stratified soils” (SSS12), “Regolith and soil micromorphology, mineralogy and geochemistry” (SSS16) and “Past land surfaces: basic concepts, paradigm development and new methods in paleopedology” (SSS17). During Eurosoil 2008, other four sessions of paleopedology will be presented: “Soils and climate change” (S2), “Memory function of recent and paleosoils” (S25), “Time scales of pedogenic processes for predicting
soil changes in time” (S29) and “Micromorphological and mineralogical evidences of soil environmental change” (S30).
In September 2008, some members of the commission will participate to the 13th International Conference on Soil Micromorphology, Chengdu, China.
In 2009, the Commision is organizing a meeting in Mexico and in 2010 is going to participate at the World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS) in Brisbane (Australia), 1st - 6th August. The proposed themes for the WCSS 2010 sessions are: “Impact of aeolian sediments on pedogenic processes and soil morphology”, “Genesis and functions of soils and paleosols in karst environments” and “Timescales of soil formation pedogenic processes”.
During WCSS 2010, the new officers of the Commission will be elected, the people proposed by the Commission are Daniela Sauer and Sergey Sedov.
Another important issue of the business meeting was the setting up of an international project dealing with Paleopedology. A group of members of paleopedologists has made a proposal for an international project titled “Paleosol record of environmental changes for predicting soil sensitivity to climate change (Pacsof)”. Pacsof is a proposed project aimed at supporting the use of the knowledge achieved by a group of paleopedologists, about the consequences of past
climatic changes on paleosols, to foresee possible consequence of present and future climatic changes in present soils. The tools are the sharing of knowledge in workshops, meetings and field trips, and the education. The last will comprise the dissemination of materials, mainly through the web, and the realization of field and laboratory courses. The financial supports that will be possibly obtained by International bodies will be used to support member’s participation to
the initiatives and give grants to young researchers and students who will present their work to the workshops and attend the field and lab courses. An application was submitted to INQUA.
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