Minutes of the business meeting of the PP commission, Mexico city, March 2005. 
by Arnt Bronger and Edoardo A.C. Costantini

AGENDA

•	Past meetings and proceedings
•	Next meetings
•	Structure and future of the commission
•	Groups of interest

PAST AND MEXICO 2005 MEETINGS AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS

The president reminds that the last two meetings of the PP group were held by the INQUA congress, at Reno, in July 2003 and at Florence, in June 2004. At Reno, the session  “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 edition of the Journal of the American Geological Society. Peter Jakobs and Edoardo Costantini are editing about 20 of the papers presented in the Paleopedology meeting of Florence, which will be published on Quaternary International.
As far as the proceeding of the present meeting is concerned, E. Costantini observes that it is opportune that they will be published in a Soil Science journal, as the last proceedings appeared on geological journals and in consideration of the position of the group inside the IUSS.
After a general discussion, it is agreed that the local hosts, S. Sedov and E. Solleiro, will coordinate the activity of finding the best solution for the publication of the proceedings. 
As it is foreseen a large number of papers, it is envisaged the possibility to split the submitted papers in two groups, according to the subject: those with a more pedological issue to be published on a special volume of Catena - guest editors: Victor Targulian and Elizabeth Solleiro, the ones with a broader subject on a special volume of the “Revista Mexicana de Geologia”. C. Siebe and D. Richter are indicated to be the editors of this special volume.

NEXT MEETINGS

2006

Next year the Paleopedology group will meet at Philadelphia, hosted by the 2006 International conference of the IUSS. Two symposia will embrace paleopedology arguments.

Symposium 1.6A Imprinting of environmental changes on paleosols
This will be the official Symposium of the proposed Commission and will host the major part of the lectures of the Conference related to paleopedology 
The Symposium will encompass the different issues which are now going on in the paleopedological studies: “paleosols and environmental changes”, "paleosols, pedostratigraphy and soil mapping", "timing the soil forming processes", "paleosols as part of our cultural heritage", “paleosols and archeology”.
Convenor:        Edoardo A. C. Costantini (Italy)   
Co-convenor:   Alexander O. Makeev (Russia)   
Co-convenor:   Francesco Malucelli (Italy)  

Symposium 1.6B Amazonian Dark Earth Soils (Terra Preta and Terra Preta Nova): A Tribute to Wim Sombroek

Wim Sombroek in his monumental Soils of the Amazon (1966) not only provided the baseline for the soils of this enormously significant region, but also brought the anthropogenic terra preta (black earth) and terra mulata (brown earth) soils to the attention of the outside world. The symposium will focus around the following themes: Amazonian dark earth soils and global climate; implications for soil fertility and land use; and understanding how  
Convenor:    A. M. G. A. WinklerPrins (USA)  
Co-convenor:   William. I. Woods (USA) 

The business meeting if the commission will be held during the conference, as well as the renewal of the commission’s officers.

2007-2008

In the year 2007 we will have two opportunities to meet. The main one is by the 2007 International conference of INQUA, in Australia, the second one at Milan, Italy, in the late June.

Two symposia are proposed for INQUA, the first one related to classical paleopedology theme, to be formulated (suggestions are welcome), the second one will be a join session with another INQUA
subcommissions, the Loess Subcommission of the Stratigraphy and Chronology Commission.  The title is "Pedogenesis of aeolian deposits". Convenors will be Martin Iriondo and Ludwig Zoeller.
At present, we are waiting the green light for these symposia from the organizers.

At Milan, a joint conference and field trip on Paleopedology and Geoarcheology is proposed, organized by Luca Trombino, Mauro Cremaschi, Birgit Terhorst, and others

By December 2007 or by March 2008, Hema Achyuthan is willing to organize a  paleopedology meeting in India, at Chennai (Madras). More detailed information is expected from her.

STRUCTURE AND FUTURE OF THE COMMISSION

E. Costantini reminds that the group is part of the IUSS and the INQUA, and notices that members of the group take part to a number of other organizations and events, e.g. in the year 2004 the International  Geology Conference at Florence and the International Micromorphology Conference at Adana, in 2005 the European Geosciences Union meeting at Wien, and many others. Especially in the field of the relationships between Paleopedology and Archeology, the members of the group have several opportunities to participate to different other groups and activities. His comment is that this fact is to be considered positively, as it testifies the topical interest and relevance of the Paleopedology. 
However, the great opportunity offered to the members of the group to widen and deepen their interests would be improved if the participation to the other groups’ and societies’ initiatives was followed by a discussion and shared with the other members of the Paleopedology group. In this sense, the participation to our main year meeting assumes the utmost relevance. 
Anyway, there are also other ways to share our experiences. One of the most straightforward is to report them to our web sites, which is perfectly managed by our vice-president, A. Makeev. Another one is to publish an electronic version of the newsletter, collecting all major events and communication of the year. Also in this case the activity can have our vice-president and the secretary, F. Malucelli, as protagonists.

In addition to the before mentioned proposals regarding the activities of the group, the president introduces the ideas of i) the publication of a book on Paleopedology, ii) the setting up of an international intensive course on Paleopedology and iii) the creation of groups of interest among the Paleopedologists.

Regarding the idea of the publication of a book on Paleopedology the assembly debates about two possibilities: i) a revised version of the Handbook on Paleopedology
ii) a chapter on Paleopedology inside the “Manual of Pedology” which prof. Mermut, chairman of the division 1 of the IUSS is going to edit.
After a wide debate the second hypothesis results to be the more supported.

The idea of the creation of different groups of interest, inside the Paleopedology group, could support the realization of the chapter inside the just mentioned book and at the same time a tool to popularize Paleopedology and its expertise. In practice, people interested in the following activities should give their name, and a few of reference publications, to the vice-president, who would prepare a list to be published on our web page. 

GROUPS OF INTEREST (in alphabetical order)

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

The last proposal is the organization of an international intensive course on Paleopedology. This project could be realized in the ambit of an Erasmus programme, or by means of new technologies, like for instance teleconference. The members of the group are solicited to step forward.