Soil as a record of the past
Soil as a record of the past
Editor(s): S. J. Kluiving, M. Oliva, D. Sauer, I. Simpson, J. M. van Mourik, and J. Homburg

Environmental change and human activity both have an impact on soil development, making soils and palaeosols important and significant long-term geo-ecological and geo-archaeological archives. The subject of this special issue includes relevant aspect of soils in various climatic zones including soil and sediment analyses to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and historical and more recent human impact on geo-ecosystems.

Can we identify the interplay between natural and cultural influence reflected in the soil changing over space and time? The aim of this special issue is to present and debate cutting-edge progress in knowledge and techniques, contributing new reconstructions of natural and cultural landscape evolution and enhanced geochronology of sequences of sediments and palaeosols. In doing so we offer new insights into the complex relationships between landscape evolution, climate change, human activity, resilience and sustainability. This special issue will be relevant to researchers working in a wide range of interdisciplinary areas including pedology, archaeology, geoarchaeology, anthropology, environmental history, Quaternary sciences, e.g. palaeoclimatology and sedimentology, and landscape ecology.

Download citations of all papers

21 Oct 2016
Paleosols can promote root growth of recent vegetation – a case study from the sandy soil–sediment sequence Rakt, the Netherlands
Martina I. Gocke, Fabian Kessler, Jan M. van Mourik, Boris Jansen, and Guido L. B. Wiesenberg
SOIL, 2, 537–549, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-537-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-537-2016, 2016
Short summary
04 Jul 2016
The added value of biomarker analysis to the genesis of plaggic Anthrosols; the identification of stable fillings used for the production of plaggic manure
Jan M. van Mourik, Thomas V. Wagner, J. Geert de Boer, and Boris Jansen
SOIL, 2, 299–310, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-299-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-299-2016, 2016
04 Jul 2016
| Highlight paper
The impact of ancestral heath management on soils and landscapes: a reconstruction based on paleoecological analyses of soil records in the central and southeastern Netherlands
Marieke Doorenbosch and Jan M. van Mourik
SOIL, 2, 311–324, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-311-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-311-2016, 2016
Short summary
20 Jun 2016
Soil archives of a Fluvisol: subsurface analysis and soil history of the medieval city centre of Vlaardingen, the Netherlands – an integral approach
Sjoerd Kluiving, Tim de Ridder, Marcel van Dasselaar, Stan Roozen, and Maarten Prins
SOIL, 2, 271–285, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-271-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-271-2016, 2016
Short summary
07 Jun 2016
Arctic soil development on a series of marine terraces on central Spitsbergen, Svalbard: a combined geochronology, fieldwork and modelling approach
W. Marijn van der Meij, Arnaud J. A. M. Temme, Christian M. F. J. J. de Kleijn, Tony Reimann, Gerard B. M. Heuvelink, Zbigniew Zwoliński, Grzegorz Rachlewicz, Krzysztof Rymer, and Michael Sommer
SOIL, 2, 221–240, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-221-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-221-2016, 2016
Short summary
CC BY 4.0