Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1
.
2
A listing of international conferences on cryopedology
No.
Year
Place
Theme
Coordinators
1
1993
Pushchino,
Russia
“Cryosols: the effects of
cryogenesis on the processes &
peculiarities of soil formation”
David Gilichinsky
2
1997
Syktyvkar,
Russia
“Cryogenic soils: ecology,
genesis, classifi cation”
Galina Mazhitova,
David Gilichinsky
3
2001
Copenhagen,
Denmark
“Dynamics & challenges of
cryosols”
Bjarne Jakobsen
4
2005
Arkangelsk,
Pinega, Russia
“Cryosols: genesis, ecology &
management”
Sergey Goryachkin
5
2009
Ulan-Ude,
Russia
“Diversity of frost-affected soils
& their role in ecosystems”
Sergey Goryachkin
6
2013
Krakow, Poland
“Frost-affected soils: dynamic
soils in a dynamic world”
Marek Drewnik
37 papers describing the history, geography, properties, processes, classifi cation,
and management of cryosols in the arctic and Antarctic regions. In
2014
Bockheim
edited
Soils of Antarctica
that included chapters discussing soils of each of 10
ice-free regions in Antarctica. More detailed analyses of the history of cold soils
research are given in Tedrow (
1977
,
2004
), Goryachkin et al. (
2004
), and Tarnocai
(
2004
).
An interest in the expanding sub-discipline of cryopedology led to a series of
six International Conferences on Cryopedology which have been held approxi-
mately every 4 years, beginning in 1993; the last meeting was held in 2013
(Table
1.2
). The meetings have drawn 60 or more participants each from the inter-
national cryopedological community. However, full papers were published only
from the original 1993 meeting.
The term “cryopedology” has not attained much recognition in the international
literature. A search of the Web of Science database yielded only three citations since
the 1990s. However, “soils of polar regions” yielded nearly 400 citations, with an
exponential increase beginning in 1995 (Fig.
1.1
). The sub-science of cryopedology
has gained considerable recent attention because of the effects of high-latitude and
high-elevation warming on release of CO
2
. However, to date a topic introducing the
basics of cryopedology has not been published.
1.2
Soil Concept
Up until 1999 the standard defi nition of the soil in the USA was “a collection of
natural bodies … containing living matter and supporting or capable of supporting
plants out-of-doors” (Soil Survey Staff
1975
, p. 1). Questioned as to whether the
weathered unconsolidated materials in Antarctica were “soils,” Bockheim (
1982
,
p. 240) provided a working defi nition of soil as “a natural body comprised of solids