Report on the activities at the 18th World Congress of Soil Science

Edoardo A.C. Costantini and Simone Priori

Paleopedology studies had an important role during the 18th World Congress of Soil Science held in Philadelphia, between 9th to 15th of July 2006. Two oral sessions, two poster sessions and a theatre session were specifically dedicated to Paleopedology 
Five oral presentations have been showed in the session n. 49 “Imprint of paleoenvironmental change on paleosols”. Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo presented “Features and characteristics revealing environmental changes on paleosols in the volcanic paleosols”, Arnt Bronger “Soils and paleosols in South India as heritages of the past”, Moshe Wieder “Paleosols of the southern coastal plain of Israel”, Geoff S. Humphreys “What is inheredited? Evidence from Inceptisol/Regosol with OSL dated 0-150 ky quartz sand” and Peter Jacobs “Aggradational pedogenesis: a new model to describe soil profile development in the central great plains of North America”. 
The other oral session, titled “Amazonian dark earth soils (Terra Preta and Terra Preta Nova)” was a tribute to Wim Sombroek, and showed five oral presentations. As for the theatre session, seven papers were presented. The topics spanned from the genesis of paleosols, with works by Xue-feng Hu “Reticulated red clay with aeolian origin in Southern China and its paleoenvironmental implications”, by Daniela Sauer “Podzol development with time on sandy beach deposits in southern Norway”, by Dennis Terry “The effect of basin subsidence and climate change on acid sulphate paleosols within the Cretaceous Purbeck Group, Dorset, England”, by Alexander O. Makeev “ The Holocene tephra-paleosol sequences of Kamchatka penisula”, by Curtis Monger “Scale, paleoclimate and 13C in pedogenic carbonate: from the rizosphere to the biome”, by Stephen Wagner “Soil development on a flight of marine terraces in Metaponto, southern Italy”  to the “Soil cultural value” by Edoardo A.C. Costantini. 
Nine posters were showed in the session “Imprint of environmental change of paleosols” and twenty two in the session of “Amazonian dark earth soils (Terra Preta and Terra Preta Nova)”. In the first session were presented different topics, that mainly showed the applications of the study of the genesis of paleosols on the paleoclimatic and environmental reconstructions. A study of Brenda J. Buck et al. displayed the correlation between pedogenetic studies about saline soils, the salt tectonic and the petroleum exploration. In the second one, the topics spanned from the study of the geochemistry and the organic matter of “Terra Preta” and “Terra Preta Nova” to the reconstructing of the ancient dark earth soils management of Indio populations.
Paleosols were also object of study in some works of other commissions. Applied studies between soil genesis and geoarcheology or geomorphology were abundant in the commissions of Soil Geography and in the commission of Soil Genesis. The contribute of paleopedology was important for some sessions, namely: “Arid soils: genesis, geomorphology and geoarcheology”, “Soils on limestone: their properties, genesis and role in the human societies”, “Soil system behaviour in time” and “Interdependency of soils and soilscapes”. 
In all these presentations different approaches to the paleopedological studies were showed. Some works were carried out from a geomorphologic and paleoenvironmental point of view, others with a geochemical or mineralogical approach, furthers were pointed out on the management of paleosols. As a consequence, paleosols resulted a good subject to experiment or tune new methodologies, in particular geochemistry and mass balance, micromorphology (Optical microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope), OSL, TSL and isotopic dating.   

MINUTES OF THE BUSINESS MEETING OF THE PALEOPEDOLOGY COMMISSION, 
held by the IUSS conference at Philadelphia, July 2006 

Edoardo A.C. Costantini

AGENDA
•	Activities of the IUSS Paleopedology Commission
•	Past meetings and proceedings
•	Proceedings of Philadelphia 2006
•	Next meetings
•	Regional activities 
•	Mermut’s proposal for a chapter related to Paleopedology in the foreseen “Handbook of Pedology”. Contents and editors of the chapter

INTRODUCTION
The president introduced publications dealing with Paleopedology which one can find in different journals during the last years, making brief summaries of the relevance of paleopedology to soil sciences, earth sciences, and human sciences, as it comes from the articles recently published by the different authors in several journals. Works document the relevance of paleopedology in soil sciences for basic studies about soil forming processes, as well as in applied research on deep weathering and regolith formation, hydropedology, soil mapping, soil conservation, and, in collaboration with agronomists, in the singling out of land suitable for quality crops (terroirs). In the ambit of earth sciences, researchers have used the paleopedological approach in the investigation of the geology of Quaternary, geological mapping, neotectonics, and hydrogeology. Collaboration between paleopedology and human sciences has caused a steadily increase in the published works on pedoarcheology. Finally, in collaboration with educators, professionals, and local public administrations, some attempts have been carried out in the use of paleosols to stimulate the interest of lay people toward soil.

ACTIVITIES OF THE IUSS PALEOPEDOLOGY COMMISSION 
The president underlined the importance of clearly identifying the scope of the Commission, which essentially is coordination and dissemination. As for coordination, the commission promotes events, while avoiding overlap, and supports interdisciplinary meetings. The commission ensures maintenance of relationships between soil sciences and earth and human sciences. It is envisaged the need for better cooperation with archaeologists. 
Dissemination of information is particularly important, as paleopedology is present in many societies and events. The media chosen to complete the task are the publication of the proceedings of the Paleopedology meetings, the regular updating of the events concerning paleopedology through the newsletter, our mailing list and the web site.

PAST MEETINGS AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS
The last meetings of the PP group were held by the INQUA, at Reno, in July 2003, at Florence, in June 2004, and at Mexico city, in March 2005. At Reno, the session entitled “The Soil Record of Quaternary Climate Change” hosted the major part of the Paleopedology works. Carolyn Olson and Bruce Harrison are taking care of the publication of about 22 papers, which will be published in a special paper of Quaternary International. We will see them hard-copy published in early 2007, electronic before that
Peter Jacobs and Edoardo Costantini have edited the papers presented at the Paleopedology meeting in Florence, which will be  published in Fall 2006 as volumes 156/157 of Quaternary International.
As for the papers of the Mexico City meeting, they have been split in two groups. Elizabeth Solleiro-Rebolledo and Victor Targulian are taking care of those which are going to be published in Catena, while Christina Siebe and Daniel Richter are editing a special volume of Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geologia. 

PROCEEDINGS OF PHILADELPHIA 2006
It was decided that the President will invite all the presenters to declare their availability to submit a paper to be published in a special volume of, possibly, Catena, or the German Soil Science Journal, or Quaternary International. The editors will be Edoardo Costantini, Alexander Makeev, and Daniela Sauer.

NEXT MEETINGS

2007

In the year 2007 we will have the opportunity to meet at the 2007 International conference of INQUA, in Australia. Unfortunately, the foreseen event of Milan, a joint conference and field trip on Paleopedology and Geoarcheology, has been cancelled.
Below is a preliminary list of proposed Symposium as a feedback from Commission members. 
1. Pedogenesis Analysis of Aeolian Deposits, proposed by Martin Iriondo & Birgit Terhorst. 
2. "Pedogenic carbonate as paleoenvironmental and chronological proxy in Quaternary research: potential and limitations". Suggested by Konstantin Pustovoytov, Marie-Agnes Courty, and Nicolas Durand. 
3. "Timescales of soil formation", proposed by Daniela Sauer. 
4. "Micromorphology applied to Paleopedology" or "Micromorphology applied to Archaeology", or "Advances in soil micromorphology applications to Archaeology" by Maria Raimonda Usai.
There are still many subjects related to Paleopedology that can be proposed. People interested in making proposals could use our web forum to share ideas.
The president has already informed the organizing committee about the proposed symposia and asked for a scheduled time and place for the Paleopedology business meeting. Few days after Philadelphia,  John Chappell, Chairman, INQUA 2007 Organizing Committee, has sent the following message:

“I am pleased to make the arrangements that you have requested. We will
schedule a time during the conference for your business meeting, and
certainly will hold sessions dedicated to palaeopedology. I look forward to
receiving your advice on titles for these sessions, and your suggestions
for keynote speakers.”

It is therefore very important that the INQUA conference host symposia that are proposed by our INQUA Subcommission. I urge all the proposers to confirm to me their availability and give suggestions for keynote speakers.

2008

On the 10 to14 January 2008, Hema Achyuthan is organizing a Paleopedology meeting in India, at Chennai (Madras). More detailed information is expected from the brochure, which is nearly ready for distribution by mail.

2009

There is a first hypothesis for a Paleopedology meeting in the USA, organized by Peter Jacobs and collaborators.

The president reminds that the current commission officers have been elected inside IUSS in the recent pools. As decided in the business meeting of Florence, 2004, the mandate of the officers is linked to the IUSS, where the Paleopedology Commission has its major position. Therefore there is the need to think about new officers to be proposed for the ballot well in advance of the term of the mandate, which is 2010. The meeting in USA could be a good opportunity to discuss possible candidates. 

2010

Next meeting of IUSS in Australia

Beside the mentioned ones, also the conference organized by EGU (European Geographic Union), and Eurosoil (Soil Science Societies of Europe) will probably host sessions on paleopedology in the next years. It is desired that members of the group be involved in their organization and that the sessions could be advertised and discussed on our web page.

MERMUT’S PROPOSAL FOR A CHAPTER RELATED TO PALEOPEDOLOGY IN THE FORESEEN “HANDBOOK OF PEDOLOGY”. CONTENTS AND EDITORS OF THE CHAPTER

Prof. Mermut, chairman of the Division I of the IUSS is willing to host a chapter on paleopedology inside the “Manual of Pedology” which he is going to edit. Prof. Mermut, attending the business meeting, gave some details about the Manual. It will gather chapters provided by all the Commissions of Division I, each chapter formed by 3-4 contributions. 
The President reminds that the Commission has already discussed about the Manual in the last meeting at Mexico City and that a call for proposals has also been made through the newsletter and the web page, however, no one has yet expressed availability. 
After a debate among those present in Philadelphia, it was decided that an ad-hoc commission, formed by the president, the vice-president and Sergey Sedov will exchange ideas about the people to be invited for giving a contribution about one of the following items:

1.	Dating of Paleosols 
2.	Methods of field and laboratory study 
3.	Paleosols and Archaeology 
4.	Paleosols and paleoclimatic change 
5.	Paleosols classification and correlation 
6.	Paleoseismic activity and paleopedology 
7.	Pedostratigraphy and mapping
8.	Rates of soil forming processes 
9.	Cultural value of Paleosols