Sessions at the INQUA Congress, Bern/Switzerland, 20-27 July

Members of the Paleopedology Commission organized two sessions at the INQUA Congress in Bern. One was a full-day paleopedological session, comprising three oral blocks and a poster session. It included two excellent invited talks and a number of interesting presentations of research from almost all over the world. The other session was an interdisciplinary session that aimed to bring together scientists working on paleo-reconstructions for the same time (MIS 5 to present) based on different archives (paleo-lakes, speleothems, paleosols, sediments). As mentioned earlier, it is one of the major wishes of the commission chairs and several active Commission members to enhance contacts and collaboration between paleopedologists and other researchers working on different archives, because we feel that there is still significant potential in improving paleo-environmental reconstructions by closer interdisciplinary collaboration. Therefore, we were happy to see that a number of colleagues were attracted by this idea so that two interesting oral blocks and a poster session could be held.

Paleopedological session Indicators of climatic changes in saprolite, paleosols, polygenetic soils, and soil sediments (Conveners: Daniela Sauer, Mohammed Rafi G. Sayyed and Birgit Terhorst)

Oral Presentations

Monday 25 July, 08.30 - 10.10

Fabio Scarciglia

Macro/micromorphological features and some other climatic proxies in paleosols and polygenetic soils

Sajid Hundekari

Textural control on the weathering of basic igneous rocks: A micromorphological approach.

Stefano Carnicelli

A Late Quaternary History of Coastal Plain Development Recorded in Palaeosols and Sedimentary Successions

Elizabeth Solleiro Rebolledo 

Paleoenvironments of Late Pleistocene-Holocene in Sonora desert, NE Mexico based on the paleopedological proxies: study case in La Playa archaeological site 

Neli Jordanova

Magnetic properties of soils from Livingston Island (South Schetlands, Antarctica) as indicators of weathering and pedogenesis

Monday 25 July, 10.50 - 12.30

Alexander O. Makeev Paleopedology: new meaning for geosciences

Arnoud Boom

Molecular characterisation of dryland soil organic matter: implications for preservation in Quaternary sedimentary archives

Maria Dergacheva

Humic acids of paleosols and sediments as marker of Pleistocene - Holocene climate change

Stephen Wagner

Quaternary soils and soil sediments of the Balearic Islands as indicators of climatic changes

Cihat Alçiçek Mehmet 

Abrupt transition from wet Pliocene into dry Pleistocene proved by faunal and isotopic composition of the palustrine carbonates and pedogenic calcretes in the Çal-Karahallı basin of SW Anatolia

Boris Brasseur

Pedo-sedimentary dynamics of Sangiran dome hominid bearing layers (L/M Pleistocene, Java central, Indonesia): a paleopedological approach of ‘Pithecanthropus’ (Javanese Homo erectus) environments

Monday 25 July, 15.50 - 17.30

Holger Kels

Stepping through the palaeolandscape: A transect from the Carpathian foothills to the lowland of the Romanian Banat

Haibin Wang

Assessing geochemical indicators of weathering and sorting in last interglacial palaeosols in the Chinese Loess Plateau and its implications for palaeoclimatic reconstruction

Qingzhen Hao

The record of changing hematite and goethite accumulation over the last 22 Ma on the Chinese Loess Plateau, from magnetic measurements and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy

Mohammed Rafi Sayyed

Mineral Magnetic studies on lateritic profiles developed over the western continental

margin of Deccan Basaltic Province, India

Gabriella Barta

Secondary carbonates and stable isotope studies of the Süttö loess-paleosoil sequence in

Hungary

Junyi Ge

Magnetostratigraphy of the Xihe loess-soil sequence and implication for late Neogene

uplift of the West Qinling Mountains

Poster Presentations

Monday 25 July, 14.45 - 15.50

Sorcha Diskin

Depositional palaeo-environments of the Boteti Delta, Makgadikgadi Pans (Botswana Kalahari)

Ju Yong Kim

Cyclic Paleosoils of Last Glacial Period(MIS 2-4) in the Geoarcheological Matrix of the Paleolithic Sites, Korea

Fabio Scarciglia

Middle Pleistocene paleoenvironmental changes recorded in a pedostratigraphic succession of Sessano (Molise, Italy): a multidisciplinary approach

Zhaoyu Zhu

Tracking for climate and parent rocks from rare earth elements in topsoils along the eastern part of China

Yuki Matsuoka

The effect of Mugineic acid secreted by rice plant Hinohikari on soil 

Marco Firpo

Loess distribution on the northern flank of Ligurian Alps (NW-Italy): topographic influences and paleoenviromental implications.

Diana Jordanova

Application of multivariate statistical methods for assessment of feasibility of predicting the particle-size distribution from magnetic properties of different soil types from Bulgaria

Stephen Wagner

Reddening as climatic indicator? Investigations on Quaternary soils and soil sediments of the Balearic Islands

Sophie Baker

Geochemical and mineralogical investigation of a recently exposed saprolite profile in the Chilean Coastal Range

Michael Zech

Reconstructing Quaternary vegetation history in the Carpathian Basin, SE Europe, using n-alkane biomarkers as molecular fossils: problems and possible solutions, potential and limitations

Masashi Takada

Stable oxygen isotope of opal phytoliths from Japanese Sasa and Phyllostachys: Basic information toward the paleoenvironmental reconstruction

Lidia Danko

Aeolian records of abrupt environmental changes in southern Siberia during Middle-Late Holocene based on the research in the Lake Baikal Region

Tobias Sprafke

The loess/paleosol sequence Paudorf – An archive of Quaternary environmental changes in the loess area of Lower Austria

Xiaoyong Wang

Rock magnetic investigation of loess deposits in Luonan Basin (central China) and its paleoclimatic implications - A case study

Interdisciplinary session

Reconstructing environmental impacts of climate changes from MIS 5 to present, based on terrestrial and lacustrine archives

(Conveners: Stefano Carnicelli and Valérie Andrieu-Ponel)

Oral Presentations

Friday 22 July, 10.50 - 12.30

Daniela Sauer

The potential of combining of lacustrine, palaeopedological and other palaeoenvironmental archives – general idea and examples from the Late Pleistocene in the Mediterranean

Daniela Moser

Soil charcoal analysis at Cecita Lake (Sila Massif, Southern Italy) for understanding environmental changes: climate or human impact?

Nicole Limondin-Lozouet

New MIS 5e continental record from Northern France: the multidisciplinary study of Caours calcareous tufa (Somme basin)

Claire Gallant

Examining the potential of loess in Southern Spain as an indicator of geomorphic response to climatic shifts: MIS5e to Holocene

Lucy Farr

Recent geoarchaeological investigations in the al-Marj basin: providing a late Quaternary record of past palaeoenvironmental change in Cyrenaica, Libya

Friday 22 July, 15.50 - 17.30

Yoav Avni

The concept of Natural Desertification – the Global approach

Sangheon Yi

Pollen-inferred Holocene environmental reconstruction in South Korea: vegetation change and human impact

Darren Jeffers

Glacial to glacial palaeoclimate and vegetation dynamics of the southern Beqaa valley, Lebanon

Carole Bégeot

Lateglacial and early Holocene environmental history of the southern Vosges mountains, North-East France

Poster Presentations

Friday 22 July, 14.30 - 15.50

Yan Mu

Climate effect of dust aerosol in southern Chinese Loess Plateau since the last glacial period

Sangheon Yi

Holocene vegetation and environmental changes in small inter-valley of the Paju area, South Korean

Janneke I Jmker 

Geochemical and sedimentological analyses of dune fields on the NE Tibetan Plateau and their environmental implications

Georg Stauch

Sediment cascades on the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau – an example from the Donggi Cona catchment

Fabio Scarciglia 

Pedological and anthracological study of Holocene soils for paleoenvironmental reconstructions: a comparison between two archaeological sites in Calabria, southern Italy

Julie Dabowski 

Multiproxy record of environmental and climatic variations during the Eemian from the Northern France calcareous tufa of Caours: combining petrography, malacology and geochemistry

Jeroen Schokker 

Palaeoclimatic significance of an Early to Middle-Weichselian lacustrofluvial sedimentary record in the North-Western Netherlands

Hanane Redda

Sedimentology and geochemistry of lacustrine terraces of three Middle Atlas lakes: Holocene paleoclimatic reconstruction in Morocco.

Stefan Winkler 

A new method of obtaining high-resolution paleoclimate records from speleothem fluid inclusions

Amos Frumkin Late Quaternary palaeoclimate of the southern Levant from stromatolites and speleothems of the Dead Sea region

Yoav Avni

Is the transition from aggradation to incision during the last glacial-interglacial shift in the two hemispheres synchronous? The Southern Levant and the South Australia case studies

William Sallun Filho

Paleoclimatic records of quaternary tufa in the Serra do André Lopes karst, southeastern Brazil 

Sallun A., Ernandes Martins

Holocene changes inferred from the geochemistry of paleolagoon sediments in southern Brazil

Alison Blyth

Reconstructing terrestrial palaeotemperatures using microbial lipids preserved in stalagmites

Alison Blyth

Palaeoenvironmental change in Australasia during the last 50 ka: a novel multi-proxy stalagmite analysis

Natalie Ludgate 

The use of lipid biomarkers from cave sediments as palaeoenvironmental indicators in South-East Asia

Shyhrete Shala 

Early Holocene glacial-lake evolution in northern Finland - a multi-proxy approach.

Olga Margalef

Climatic trends for the last 70 ky BP in the SE Pacific: the Rano Aroi and Rano Raraku records from Easter Island

Hikaru Takahara 

Vegetation reconstruction in MIS5e and MIS5d based on plant remains from the Mizukiri Peat layer, Fukui, western Japan. Part 2: Local vegetation changes from plant macrofossils

Ryoma Hayashi 

Vegetation reconstruction in MIS5e and MIS5d based on plant remains from the Mizukiri Peat layer, Fukui, western Japan. Part 1: Chronology and regional vegetation from pollen data

Isabelle Couchoud

Multi-proxy study of Holocene speleothems from high altitude caves in the French Alps: preliminary insights on climate and landscape variations

Andrzej Tatur

Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental changes from lake sediments in Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica

Emma Gatti

Drough and flood in Holocenic Western India: a study on phytolith and paleosequences of the Mahi river, Gujarat.

Ian J Orland

Seasonal resolution of Eastern Mediterranean climate change since 34 ka from a Soreq Cave speleothem

Mona Court-Picon

Reconstruction of environmental and climatic changes during the Late Glacial at Moerbeke (Flemish Valley, Belgium) using multiproxy lake sediment analyses

Irina Panyushkina

High-resolution terrestrial MIS3 environment from trees encapsulated in landslide deposits of Oregon, USA