World Congress of Soil Science

Sessions at 20th World Congress of Soil Science, Jeju Island/South Korea, 8-13 June 2014

http://www.20wcss.org/

Two sessions of Commission 1.6 Paleopedology and one joint session of Commissions 1.6 Paleopedology and 1.1 Soil Morphology and Micromorphology will be organized:

Session C1.6-1: Paleosols and Pedosedimentary Sequences for Understanding Impacts of Climatic Changes

Conveners: Alexander Makeev (Russia), Mohammed Rafi G. Sayyed (India)

Fragile global environmental conditions today urgently demand improving our understanding of past climatic changes and their impacts on terrestrial ecosystems. Paleopedological investigations can significantly contribute to this understanding. Predicting responses of terrestrial systems to present and future climatic changes requires an improved understanding of how the Earth’s climate has evolved from cold snowball earth state to warm greenhouse state and how terrestrial systems and biogeochemical cycles responded to such changes in the past. Palaeo-environmental studies using paleosols as proxies allow for reconstructing these changes and responses. The chemical composition of mineral and organic matter in paleosols holds great potential to reconstruct regional palaeo–climatic and –environmental conditions. It is however important to understand the mechanisms that influence geochemical data preservation in the proxies. This session invites studies on past inorganic, biological and biogeochemical processes acting in paleosols and former weathering zones. In particular, proxy data-climate model inter-comparisons are encouraged. Contributions identifying extreme events or presenting suitable proxies for palaeo-precipitation, seasonality, palaeo-weathering, and related geochemical variations in paleosols are welcome.

Session C1.6-2: Quantitative palaeo-environmental proxies in paleosols

Conveners: Peter Kühn (Germany), Curtis Monger (USA)

Palaeopedological work used to be based mainly on interpreting paleosols in terms of palaeo-environmental conditions during their formation by comparing them to modern analogues and their environments. In addition to this important established approach, particularly in the past two decades, the number of attempts to identify quantitative proxies in paleosols has increased, and several promising approaches have been developed. We call for papers of all kinds of (semi-)quantitative palaeo-environmental and palaeoclimatic proxies in paleosols, including major, trace and rare earth element ratios, (geo-)chemical indices, analyses of iron-manganese nodules and pedogenic carbonates, stable isotopes of carbonates and other soil components, as well as biochemical markers such as alkanes, sugars and lipids, and biomarkers like phytoliths, pollen, vegetal and faunal macro- and micro-fossils. We welcome also contributions pointing to problems that we have to deal with in applying these quantitative approaches, such as diagenetic processes after paleosol burial, decomposition of soil organic compounds, and ambiguity of chemical indices for palaeo-climatic reconstructions (since they are also used for quantifying progressive soil development in soil chronosequences).

Session DS1: Micromorphological answers to palaeopedological and polypedogenetic questions

Conveners: Rosa Maria Poch (Spain), Daniela Sauer (Germany)

Specific micromorphological properties observed in paleosols and polygenetic soils may serve as valuable indicators of past environments. It is however essential that such micromorphological observations are appropriately interpreted in order to obtain reliable reconstructions of palaeo-environments. Thus, this session focuses on the interpretation and use of micromorphological palaeo-environmental indicators.

Soil properties depend on environmental conditions in which soils have formed. Hence, paleosols are archives of past environments. Micromorphological analysis is particularly valuable for identifying soil properties on a micro-scale that are indicative for specific environmental conditions. This tool is also valuable for identifying the polygenetic nature of surface soils because even if the major part of the solum has responded to a changing environment and has approached a new equilibrium corresponding to the present environment, micromorphological analysis may still identify some relict features that can be only explained by different former environmental conditions. Contributions presenting such micromorphological indicators for various types of environmental conditions are welcome. In addition, examples of palaeo-environmental reconstructions of particular regions based on such indicators may be presented.