Dear Friends,
In 2024, 200 years will have passed since the term "loess" was introduced into scientific literature. We would like to celebrate this anniversary with several scientific events. The main event will be LoessFest 2024 in Mainz, organized on June 19 to 22. A kind of prologue to this event will be the 8th Loess Seminar "Remarkable Ideas and Personalities in Loess Research" organized in Wrocław on June 15-18. We would like to invite You to take part in this event to celebrate our great predecessors and return to a discussion on fundamental loess hypotheses. Important dates: 30th April – registration deadline 15th May – abstract submission and payment deadline 20th May – second circular and detailed programme Proposed schedule: 15th June – afternoon ice-breaker 16th June – full-day field trip (Richthofen's birthplace, loess profile at Trzebnica hills) 17th June – plenary/poster sessions and conference dinner 18th June – plenary/poster sessions and short field trip Registration: you can register using this form. Registration fee: 750 PLN (about 175 EUR/190 USD) + bank costs of the transfer The registration fee covers conference materials and meals (including coffee breaks and dinners), conference dinner and field trips (transportation cost and dinner). The registration fee does not cover accommodation in Wrocław. Venue: Institute of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wrocław, Poland The conference will take place in Wrocław (Lower Silesia Voivodeship, SW Poland). The plenary sessions will be held in the buildings of the University of Wrocław, located in the city center. Planned field trips will be organized in south-western Poland and their detailed plan will be given in the second circular. Accommodation: The organizers do not provide accommodation for conference participants. A number of hotels, hostels and apartments are located near the University and are available on booking.com and Airbnb. If you have trouble finding accommodation, the organizers will help you find a place to stay. How to get there: The city has an airport (Copernicus Airport Wrocław), connected with the city center by a regular bus service (the transfer takes about 30 minutes). The city is connected by high-speed rail with Warsaw, where a major international airport is located (Warsaw Chopin Airport). Transport to LoessFest 2024 in Mainz, Germany On 19th June we are organising a free joint trip to the LoessFest conference in Mainz. (answer the questions in the attached registration form). Organizing Committee Zdzisław Jary (Chairman), Michał Łopuch (Secretary), Piotr Owczarek, Jacek Skurzyński, Marcin Krawczyk, Jerzy Raczyk, Bartosz Korabiewski If you have any questions, feel free to email the conference secretary ([email protected])
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Dear members and followers of the INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group,
In July we had the opportunity to meet in Rome during the congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research where we held the first General Meeting of the Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group. We have confirmed election results for the new Committee for the next term of office 2023-2027. I would like to start by expressing my appreciation and gratitude to the outgoing president, Professor Shiling Yang, for his work over the past four years! I also want to thank you for electing me as the new president. I realize that for many reasons this will not be an easy task for me. However, I trust that I will be able to meet at least the minimum of your expectations. We had four fantastic loess sessions spread over almost three days at the Congress: 1. Dust dynamics through the Quaternary: terrestrial records of climatic and environmental impacts – conveners: Steve Pratte, François De Vleeschouwer, Nicolas J. Cosentino and Stefania Gili. 2. Quantitative proxies for paleoenvironmental reconstructions from loess and terrestrial archives – conveners: Charlotte Prud'homme, Thomas Stevens, Gábor Újvári and Huayu Lu. 3. Loess and dust deposits: beyond local studies – conveners: Christian Zeeden, Shiling Yang, Janina Nett, Christoph Schmidt and Daniel Veres. 4. Factors influencing the diversity of loess sedimentary environments and the resulting variability of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental signals – conveners: Zdzisław Jary, Pierre Antoine, Kaja Fenn and Shiling Yang. My best compliments to all session organizers and presenters! Special congratulations to the Charlotte Prud'homme team whose session was probably the most popular among participants (2 x 2 hours). It is fantastic to see so much interest and research invested in investigating loess. I have one more pleasant duty. In hot Rome, it might have been missed by some that our great colleague, Professor Denis-Didier Rousseau was awarded the Liu Tungsheng Distinguished Career Medal for outstanding contributions to Quaternary science - the most important distinction to a senior Quaternary scientist. My best compliments to You, Denis! We are all proud that you are a member of loess community. I wish you a nice holiday and interesting field trips, Zdzisław Jary Running for President
Running for Vice-President
Running for Secretary
Loess is formed by accumulation of aeolian dust, and the processes that control loess formation and its post-depositional alteration are closely related to global hydrologic cycle, atmospheric circulation, regional tectonic and glacial activity, and climate conditions. Therefore, loess is the valuable archive for paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstructions. In recent years, loess studies have been largely improved in the aspect of both identifying its significance in deep past of Earth history and uncovering its extensive global distribution. Given this background, the 2022 INQUA Loessfest conference was organized by INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group and Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGG-CAS), and held online from 20th to 23rd August, 2022. The 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference focused on the recent achievements and future prospects in various aspects of loess and aeolian dust studies, including modern processes, geologic records and palaeoenvironmental and landscape analyses, loess and humn habitability, modeling and recent technical progresses. There are 158 registered representatives from different countries, and because it was a fully online virtual meeting, even a larger audience has attended the conference as well. In summary, 125 abstracts were submitted, including 7 invited keynote speeches, 57 oral presentations and 32 poster presentations. Prof. Shiling Yang, President of the INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group and Deputy Director of IGG-CAS, chaired the welcome and closing sessions of the conference. Prof. Thijs van Kolfschoten, INQUA President from Leiden University, delivered a speech in the welcome session to introduce the conference and express his welcome and gratitude to the participants. Prof. Zhengtang Guo, INQUA Vice President and Academician of CAS, highly appraised the success of the conference in the closing session, and placed great emphases on the future loess and paleoenvironmental studies. The keynote speeches covered several recent hotspots of loess studies. Prof. Zhisheng An reviewed the recent advances in Chinese loess studies. Prof. Fahu Chen introduced loess deposits in Central Asia and their paleoclimatic implications. Prof. Weijian Zhou expounded the potential of 10Be in geomagnetic tracing studies. Prof. Majie Fan introduced the mid-Cenozoic loess deposits covering a vast area of western USA. Prof. Gerilyn S. Soreghan introduced the loess and dust in Permian Pangaea. Prof. Slobodan B. Marković discussed the synchronicity between IRD events in Northern Atlantic and grain size variations of the Serbian loess during the last million years. Prof. Thomas Stevens reviewed the Neogene-Quaternary loess sources of Eurasia. The participants shared their latest researches and actively discussed with each other, to exchange ideas in a friendly climate in the conference. The conference brought together the latest developments in loess studies, and marked the groundbreaking achievements in this field. It is notable that on the one hand, the time scale of loess studies has been further expanded from the Quaternary to the Permian. On the other hand, loess studies have been more closely integrated with habitability of the Earth for human society. A large number of archaeological researches presented in this conference have revealed that the Eurasian Loess Belt has been creating many “initiates” in the evolution of human civilization. The Loessfest, which is usually held every four years, is one of the traditional activities of INQUA Loess and Pedostratigraphy Working Group, formerly known as Loess Focus Group. The 2022 INQUA Loessfest was a fully online virtual meeting for the first time. Another change to the Loessfest in this year was that there held the Loess Early Career Researchers (ECR) workshop on 15th to 19th August, right before the main conference. The ECR workshop acted as a professional development workshop, and brought the young scientists and students all over the world together to learn from senior scientists, especially about the newly developed methods in loess studies and inter-disciplinary approaches. In this year, five lectures of different topics were given by Dr. Jan-Pieter Buylaert from Technical University of Denmark, Dr. Pieter Vermeesch from University College London, Dr. Gabor Ujvari from ELKH, Hungary, Dr. Samuel Albani from University of Milan, and Dr. Huayu Lu from Nanjing University. These inspiring lectures introduced the recent advances in geochronological methods, provenance studies, geochemical proxy indicators, dust modeling, and quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions. Thirty-two ECRs from eight different countries/regions registered and actively participated in the interactive discussions related to these lectures. More than one hundred audiences joined in the online lecture each day. It even blew our minds in the first day, because we never expected so many people. In order to expand the impact and help ECRs who are interested in loess studies but missed the workshop, the recording of these lectures will be uploaded and made available online in this year. Under the well-prepared organization of the conference committee, the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference were successfully held, as well as the ECR workshop. Although the conference has ended, its broad impact in the international academic community is continuing. Its future outcomes will include two special issues that are currently organizing. One special issue will be published by Quaternary International, the official journal of INQUA, and have 18 potential contributions. The other issue with 21 potential contributions will be published by Quaternary Research. More importantly, this conference has brought the international communities together in this complex and volatile world situation. To be sure, the success and fruitful outcomes of the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference will strengthen the academic influence and strongly promote the advancement of loess studies in the future. A photo collection of some participants in the 2022 INQUA LoessFest conference
Loessfest 2022The website for the INQUA Loessfest conference is live now - https://2022loessfest.scimeeting.cn. Check it out for information on the program and conference location. More information will be added over time.
Key points - abstract submission will open in November 2021 - online registration will open in February 2022 Quaternary windblown loess of Sweden and FinlandProject description: Loess comprises extensive deposits of windblown mineral dust of dominant silt size. These sequences form some of the most detailed past climate and atmospheric dust records available and are found over large areas of the continents. Loess type deposits also exist in Sweden and Finland yet research into these sediments has been sparse, and much remains unknown about their genesis, timing of formation, and link to climate and landscape change. These deposits also have great potential for productive agricultural soils, but are simultaneously vulnerable to soil erosion. This PhD position aims to address this gap as part of an SGU funded project into the distribution, age and formation of loess in Sweden. The successful candidate will primarily be responsible for fieldwork and mapping of loess deposits in Sweden and Finland, detailed age dating of deposits using luminescence and radiocarbon techniques, sediment characterization using multi-proxy methods, as well as analysis of provenance indicators. The PhD position will be conducted jointly with the University of Helsinki, Finland, where a stay of c. 1 year is likely, and additionally will likely involve stays at one or more further partner institutions. The project is supervised by Dr Thomas Stevens at the Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, and Dr Anu Kaakinen, at the department of geosciences and geography, University of Helsinki. It will collaborate closely with PhD students and staff in both research groups at Uppsala and Helsinki.
See more details at https://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/join-us/details/?positionId=418637 |
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