Commission Report of the Inter-Congress period 1999-2003

Arnt Bronger, bronger@geographie.uni-kiel.de

Paleopedology is regarded as the study of paleosols, which have been somewhat loosely defined as soils formed on a landscape during the geologic past. We distinguishburied or fossil soils from non-buried paleosols or relict soils

One of the most important uses of buried Quaternary paleosols has been the paleoclimatic interpretation of the mutiple soils in long loess sequences of Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China, USA and Argentina. These sequences have provided detailed records of a climatic history of the last 2,6 million years. This is one of the task of paleopedology mainly in the Internat. Quaternary Association (INQUA).

Non buried paleosols or relict soils show two or more sets of properties which can be related to different combinations of soil-forming factors (esp. different climates and with it vegetation) through sets of often incompatible soil forming processes. Incompatibility of processes implies two or more environmentally different periods of soil development. Thus also non-buried paleosols play an important role for a full and correct understanding of landscape history, which is essential for a proper appreciation of many modern environmental problems. Paleosols as a memory for understanding landscape history and environmental problems was a symposium (No. 49) during the World Congress of Soil Science August 2003 in Bangkok.

The aim of our International Symposia and Field Workshops on Paleopedology (ISFWP) is to exchange ideas and concepts, to focus the discussion and to built up an active core group (as large as possible) of members of the Paleopedology Commission (INQUA). In the period 1999-2002 we had the following symposia:

During the INQUA Congress in Durban, South Africa, August 3-11, 1999 the Commission on Paleopedology (WG in IUSS) had a main symposium Paleosol sequences as evidence of long- and short term climatic cycles and two afternoon workshops.

V ISFWP Paleosols and modern soils as stages of continuous soil formation was held in Suzdal, Russia, partly together with the III Congress of Dokuchaev Soil Science Society of Russian Academy of Science, July 10-16, 2000, attended by 45 participants from 6 countries. A report of this meeting including abstracts of the presented papers is given in Commission on Paleopedology Newsletter No.17, December 2000.

VI. ISFWP, held in Chapingo near Mexico City , October 8-11, 2001, attended by 46 participants from 10 countries. A pre-Conference excursion (October 6-7) studied tephra-paleosol sequences in the Nevada de Toluca area. A post-Conference excursion (October 12-13) studied modern soils of Sierra Nevada, relict polygenetic Luvisols with tepetates (indurated horizons in volcanic sediments) and tephra-paleosol sequences in the Tlaxcala area. A report of this meeting including the abstracts of the presented papers is given in Commission on Paleopedology Newsletter No. 18, January 2002.

During this symposium a new Working Group Latin American Paleopedology WG was formed with Martin Iriondo, Argentina as chairman and Elizabeth Solleiro, Mexico as the secretary of the WG. They arranged already their first meeting on November 21-23, 2002 in Anillaco, La Rioja province, Argentina with two days oral presentations of paleopedological issues and one day field trip. A report of this meeting is given in our Newsletter No. 19, January 2003.

The Commission on Paleopedology intends to get the papers, presented on its symposia, published in international reviewed journals:

Thirty-eight reviewed papers, mainly presented at the IV. ISFWP in Lanzhou, China 1998: Climatic Change: Paleopedological and Soil Rock Magnetic Approaches were published in Chinese Science Bulletin, Vol. 44, Supp. 1, pp. 1-263, 1999.

Fifteen reviewed papers, presented at the III ISFWP, held together with Comm. V of the ISSS 1997 in Rauischholzhausen, Germany are published in a special issue Recent and paleo-pedogenesis as tools for modeling past and future global change in CATENA, Vol 41, pp. 1-259, 2000.

Reviewed papers, presented at a Paleopedology Symposium Records in soils of environmental and anthropogenic changes, held at the World Congress of Soil Science at Montpellier, France 1998 were published partly in CATENA, vol. 43, pp. 163-276, 2001 (eight papers), partly in Quaternary International, Vol. 78, pp. 1-70, 2001 (seven papers).

18 reviewed papers, presented mainly at the V. ISFWP Paleosols and modern soils as stages of continuous soil formation in Suzdal, Russia are now in print as a special volume in Quaternary International Vol. 105/106. It will contain approximately 200 pages.

Mid of 2002 ICSU granted 47,000 US $ for the project Polygenetic models for Pleistocene paleosols: new approach to decoding the paleosol-sedimentary records for a Paleopedology Commission research group from Mexico, Germany, Austria and Russia, supported by INQUA and IUSS. 

LIST OF CONTENTS TO CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN, V. 44, SUPPLEMENT 1, 1999.

(Proceedings of the fourth international symposium and field workshop on paleopedology in Lanzhou, China, July, 1998)

Editors: Fang Xiao-Min and Dennis Nettleton

LIST OF CONTENTS TO A SPECIAL ISSUE OF CATENA (Volume 41, nos. 1-2, 2000)

(Proceeding of the third international symposium and field workshop on paleopedology in Rauischholtshausen, Germany, September, 1997)

Editors: John Catt, Peter Felix-Henningsen, Rob Kemp, Thomas Scholten

John Catt, Peter Felix-Henningsen, Rob Kemp, Thomas Scholten, Preface, pp. 1-2

Cristine C. Muggler, Peter Buurman, Erosion, sedimentation and pedogenesis in a polygenetic oxisol sequence in Minas Gerais, Brazil, pp. 3-17

Peter Kallis, Klaus E. Bleich, Karl Stahr, Micromorphological and geochemical characterization of Tertiary `freshwater carbonates' locally preserved north of the edge of the Miocene Molasse Basin (SW Germany), pp. 19-42

P. Felix-Henningsen, Paleosols on Pleistocene dunes as indicators of paleo-monsoon events in the Sahara of East Niger, pp. 43-60

W.D. Nettleton, C.G. Olson, D.A. Wysocki, Paleosol classification: Problems and solutions, Catena pp. 61-92

Gerhard Reuter, A logical system of paleopedological terms, pp. 93-109

Arno Kleber, Compound soil horizons with mixed calcic and argillic properties --- examples from the northern Great Basin, USA, pp. 111-131

D. Faust, F. Diaz del Olmo, R. Baena Escudero, Soils in the Holocene alluvial sediments of the Rio Fraja Valley, Spain: in situ or soil-sediments?, pp. 133-142

H. Rittweger, The "Black Floodplain Soil" in the Amneburger Becken, Germany: a lower Holocene marker horizon and indicator of an upper Atlantic to Subboreal dry period in Central Europe?,pp. 143-164

Birgit Terhorst, The influence of Pleistocene landforms on soil-forming processes and soil distribution in a loess landscape of Baden--Wurttemberg (south-west Germany), pp. 165-179

A. Bronger, P. Wichmann, J. Ensling, Over-estimation of efficiency of weathering in tropical "Red Soils": its importance for geoecological problems, pp. 181-197

Rupert Bumler, W. Zech, Quaternary paleosols, tephra deposits and landscape history in South Kamchatka, Russia, Catena pp. 199-215

N. Kostic, N. Protic, Pedology and mineralogy of loess profiles at Kapela-Batajnica and Stalac, Serbia, pp. 217-227

Ludwig Zoller, Chronology of upper Pleistocene "red silts" in the Siwalik system and constraints for the timing of the upper palaeolithic in Nepal, pp. 229-235

Alexander L. Alexandrovskiy, Holocene development of soils in response to environmental changes: the Novosvobodnaya archaeological site, North Caucasus, Catena pp. 237-248

Elena I. Alexandrovskaya, Alexander L. Alexandrovskiy, History of the cultural layer in Moscow and accumulation of anthropogenic substances in it, pp. 249-259 

LIST OF CONTENTS TO A SPECIAL ISSUE OF CATENA (Volume 43, Issue 3, April 2001)

(Proceeding of the paleopedology symposium during the XVI World Soil Congress, France, 1998)

Editors: J. A. Catt and N. Fedoroff

Preface, Pages 163-165 

J. A. Catt and N. Fedoroff

Anthropogenically-triggered iron pan formation in some Irish soils over various time spans, Pages 167-176 

Deirdre A. Cunningham, James F. Collins and Thomas Cummins 

The influence of long-term cultivation on soil properties and patterns in an undulating terrain in Poland, Pages 177-189 

Zbigniew Klimowicz and Stanislaw Uziak

Effects of prolonged irrigation on the humus of steppe soils in southwest Siberia, Pages 191-202 

E. Kovaleva and M. Dergacheva

Records of climatic changes in the carbonate profiles of Russian Chernozems,Pages 203-215 

O. S. Khokhlova, I. S. Kovalevskaya and S. A. Oleynik

Biomorphic analysis as a part of soil morphological investigations, Pages 217-230 

Alexandra Golyeva

Polygenetic Vertisols of the Purna Valley of Central India, Pages 231-249 

D. K. Pal, S. S. Balpande and P. Srivastava

Chemical and mineralogical changes in a polygenetic soil of Galicia, NW Spain,Pages 251-265 

Maria J. Fernndez Sanjurjo, Giuseppe Corti and Fiorenzo C. Ugolini

Evidence of paleoprocesses in some poorly developed soils on consolidated material in the Sierra de Carrascoy (SE Spain), Pages 267-276 

Angel Faz, Roque Ortiz and Mar�aTeresa Fernndez 

LIST OF CONTENTS TO A SPECIAL ISSUE OF QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL,

Volume 78, Issue 1, Pages 1-67 (April 2001)

(Proceeding of the paleopedology symposium during the XVI World Soil Congress, France,1998)

Editors: J. A. Catt and N. Fedoroff 

Records in soils of environmental changes, Pages 1-2J. A. Catt and N. Fedoroff

Time-dependent factors of soil and weathering mantle diversity in the humid tropics and subtropics: : a concept of soil self-development and denudation,Pages 3-10 

R. G. Gracheva, V. O. Targulian and I. V. Zamotaev

Climatic periodicity during the late Pleistocene from a loesspaleosol sequence in northwest Argentina, Pages 11-16 

J. A. Zinck and J. M. Sayago

Sedimentsoil sequences in the Granada Basin as evidence for long- and short-term climatic changes during the Pliocene and Quaternary in the Western Mediterranean, Pages 17-32 

Norbert G�nster and Armin Skowronek

The soil skeleton as a tool for disentangling pedogenetic history: a case study in Tuscany, central Italy, Pages 33-44 

G. Corti, A. Agnelli, G. Certini and F. C. Ugolini

The relationship of soils containing liquefaction features and redoximorphic features to perched seasonal water tables in the Lower Mississippi River Valley,Pages 45-51 

P. R. Owens, E. M. Rutledge, S. C. Osier and M. A. Gross

Dating sequences of buried horizons of podzols developed in wind-blown sand at Ulfborg, Western Jutland, Pages 53-60 

Kristian Dalsgaard and Bent Vad Odgaard 

Titanium in Alfisols formed from glacial deposits of different ages in Poland,Pages 61-67 

Halina Dobkowska-Naskret and Hanna Jaworska