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NEWSLETTER
INTERNATIONAL HUMIC SUBSTANCES SOCIETY
Number 33
Dear IHSS members, Autumn will again be time for elections: all of you will be asked to choose candidates and vote to renew the positions of Vice President, one Board Member and Treasurer of the Society. Your active participation is once again vital to make the IHSS Board truly representative of the IHSS membership. The good functioning of the Society depends on its officers and this honour and duty should be decided in turn by the largest possible number of the membership. The regular renewal of all Board positions was wisely delineated in our bylaws by indicating in Article V, Section 4 the maximum number of years each officer should serve. However, during the past years it has become increasingly clear that the position of Treasurer is different from the others. This position requires not only dedication in terms of both time and effort, which few of us would be prepared to spare, but also a specific knowledge of laws as well as of tax regulations. It also has become increasingly evident for undeniable practical reasons, that the Treasurer should practically be a person living in the USA; it would be complicated for anyone outside the USA to deal with the financial administration of a Society based in the USA. It would also be exceedingly costly and time consuming to regularly shift from country to country the legal location and bank accounts of the Society. For these reasons the Board of Directors asked our well-known, trustworthy Treasurer Ed Clapp to agree to be a candidate and to serve again for another term. We are all very obliged to him for accepting and be willing to go on serving the IHSS as Treasurer. Together with the ballots for the next elections you will therefore receive another ballot which will contain a request to agree to a change in Article V, Section 4 of the bylaws, which will read as follows: "An officer, except the President, the Vice President/President Elect and the Treasurer, may hold the same office for no more than two (2) additional consecutive terms. No officer, except the Treasurer may serve more than twelve (12) consecutive years on the Board of Directors". The old text was:" An officer, except the President and the Vice President/President Elect, may hold the same office for no more than two (2) additional consecutive terms. No officer may serve more than twelve (12) consecutive years on the Board of Directors". We hope to get the necessary support from the membership and allow our Society to avail itself of Ed's invaluable expertise for some more years. Maria De Nobili
President of IHSS

Summer, 2005

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Past President Dr. Yona Chen Dept. of Soil & Water Sciences The Hebrew University of Jerusalem P.O. Box 12 76100 Rehovot, Israel (+) 972 8 9489234 (+) 972 8 9468565 yonachen@agri.huji.ac.il Secretary Dr. Gudrun Abbt-Braun Engler-Bunte-Institut, Wasserchemie UniversitÄt Karlsruhe Engler-Bunte-Ring 1 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany (+) 49 721 6084309 (+) 49 721 6087051 gudrun.abbt-braun@ebi-wasser.unikarlsruhe.de Board Position Dr. Claudio Ciavatta Dip. Scienze Tecnologie Agro-Ambientali UniversitÞ di Bologna Viale Fanin, 40 40127 Bologna, Italy (+) 39 051 2096201 (+) 39 051 2096203 claudio.ciavatta@unibo.it President Dr. Maria de Nobili Dip. Prod. Vegetali e Tecn. Agrarie UniversitÞ di Udine Via delle Scienze 208 33100 Udine, Italy (+) 39 0432 558644 (+) 39 0432 558603 maria.denobili@uniud.it Treasurer Dr. C.E. Clapp USDA-ARS Dept. Soil, Water, Climate University of Minnesota 1991 Upper Buford Circle St. Paul, MN 55108, USA (+) 1 612 6252767 (+) 1 612 6261204 eclapp@umn.edu Board Position Dr. Ladislau Martin-Neto EMBRAPA CNPDIA 13560-970 Sao Carlos-SP Brazil (+) 55 16 33742477 (+) 55 16 33725958 martin@cnpdia.embrapa.br Vice President

2005

Dr. Paul R. Bloom Dept. Soil, Water, Climate University of Minnesota 1991 Upper Buford Circle St. Paul, MN 55108, USA (+) 1 612 6254711 (+) 1 612 6261204 prb@umn.edu Chairman, Samples Collection Dr. Paul R. Bloom Dept. Soil, Water, Climate University of Minnesota 1991 Upper Buford Circle St. Paul, MN 55108, USA (+) 1 612 6254711 (+) 1 612 6261204 prb@umn.edu Honorary Members Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang FLAIG Morris SCHNITZER Frank J. STEVENSON Ronald L. MALCOLM Michael H.B. HAYES Egil T. GJESSING Russel CHRISTMAN Konrad HAIDER

International Humic Substances Society on the World Wide Web Visit our home page at:

http://www.ihss.gatech.edu

NEW UPDATES!!! Information on the new IHSS TRAINING BURSARIES, IHSS TRAVEL BURSARIES, MEMBERSHIP FEES.
Dr. E. M. Perdue coordinates the updating of the IHSS WEB page which is located on the server of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA. Contributions, suggestions and comments regarding the content and organization of the WEB pages are welcome from all IHSS members. E-mail: Dr. E. M. Perdue at michael.perdue@eas.gatech.edu.

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ELECTIONS
The President has appointed the new elections nominating committee. Members of the committee are: Chair Jerzy Drozd of the Agricultural University of Wroclaw, Faculty of Agriculture, Institute of Pedology and Agricultural Environment Protection (Poland), Dan Olk of the USDA-ARS National Soil Tilth Laboratory, Ames, IA (USA), and Deborah Pinheiro Dick of the Instituto de QuÌmica, UFRGS, Porto Alegre ­ RS (Brazil). Members are invited to send candidate names to the committee through their chapter coordinators or directly to the committee.
Jerzy Drozd: drozd@ozi.wroc.pl Dan Olk: olk@nstl.gov Deborah Pinheiro Dick: dpdick@iq.ufrgs.br

BOARD ACTIVITIES

2005

BOARD MEETING, JUNE 2005 The last Board meeting was held after the EMSI/NOM workshop, on June 17 and 18, 2005 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Many topics were discussed during the meeting: · Elections in 2005: voting for the renewal of the positions of Vice President, one Board Member and Treasurer of the Society. It was decided that concomitantly to the next elections, the membership will be asked to vote a change in bylaws to allow the present Treasurer of the society to be re-elected. Details are given in the President`s introduction on page 1. · 13
th

meeting of IHSS in Karlsruhe, 2006: Gudrun Abbt Braun reported on behalf of the

organizing committee about the arrangements made for the conference. Information can be found in the first announcement and call for papers on page 16 of this newsletter and on the website www.wasserchemie.uni-karlsruhe.de/ihss2006/. · · Reference and Standard Collection: the Board has decided upon a new reference sample from Antartica. Detailed information is given on page 7. National Chapters: Among the items discussed during the last Board meeting was the ever increasing need for transparent and democratic organization of the larger chapters. Due to the continuing increase in Collection sales, the IHSS is in good financial standing. We are able to spend more money for Collection sample renewal and for bursaries and to contribute to the activities of Regional and National Chapters. This makes it important to set up clear rules for management and organization of Chapters with more than 50 members. The President suggested that following the example of the Nordic/Baltic Chapter, the IHSS should encourage the National Chapters to develop bylaws and hold regular elections of National Coordinators. To encourage participation from their members, the President proposed that up to 50% of the membership dues should be retained by Regional or National Coordinators for the organization of National Chapter meetings or to encourage students (prizes, bursaries, etc). These suggestions were approved by the Board.

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· ·

Membership fees: the Board decided to update membership fees. The new list is reported on page 4 of this newsletter. The secretary announced the following changes in the positions of the National Coordinators:
Ulla Lundstrom will follow Georg Becher as coordinator in the Nordic-Baltic Chapter,

Marc Benedetti will follow Claire Richard in the French Chapter, Dan Olk will follow Alan Olness in the US Chapter. · Development of the number of members and countries since 2001:
M embers and Countries 2001 928 899 29 2002 873 831 42 2003 883 832 51 2004 898 855 43 2005 917 875 42

M embers, total Nation al Ch ap ters RoW-Ch ap ter

Countries, total Nation al Ch ap ters Countries in RoW
08. 06. 2005

53 31 22

53 31 22

56 35 21

55 28 20

Gudrun Abbt-Braun

MEMBERSHIP FEES
At the last Board Meeting in Columbus, the Board of Directors of the IHSS agreed to update the membership dues and to hasten the process of updating and completing the general membership list: · · Members of the ROW-Chapter should send their dues directly to the Secretary (in US$). The National Coordinators should update the membership lists at least at the beginning of each year. Each National Coordinator should use the form for the membership list which was already sent by the Secretary. The form should be sent to the Secretary. · Up to 50 % of the membership dues of the National Chapters can from now on be retained by Regional or National Coordinators of Chapters with more than 50 members for students prizes, bursaries, etc and for National Chapter meetings (see the decision of the Board on page 3 BOARD MEETING, JUNE 2005, National Chapters). IHSS Members are reminded that membership dues are payable at the beginning of each year directly to their National Coordinators.

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Membership fees 2005, in US$
Chapter, Country Argentina AustraliaNew Zealand Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Cameroon Canada China Columbia Costa Rica Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Egypt Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary India Indonesia Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Latvia Regular $12,50 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $12.50 $12,50 $12,50 $25.00 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $25.00 $12,50 $12,50 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $12,50 $12,50 $25.00 $12,50 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 Student/ Retired $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 Chapter, Country Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Monaco Morocco Netherlands Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Serbia Slovakia Slovania South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Turkey Ukraine U. K. USA Venezuela Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Central and South America Regular $12,50 $25,00 $12.50 $25.00 $12.50 $25.00 $25.00 $12.50 $12.50 $25.00 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $12,50 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 $12,50 $25.00 $25.00 $25.00 Student/ Retired $7.00 $12,50 $7.00 $12.50 $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50 $7.00 $12.50 $12.50 $12.50

$12,50

$7.00

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TRAVEL BURSARIES 2006
Students can apply for a Travel Bursary to attend next year's conference in Karlsruhe. Preapplications should be made before Dec. 01, 2005 and must contain the abstract. They must be sent to the IHSS 2006 conference secretariat at the following address,. E-mail: IHSS2006@ebi-wasser.uni-karlsruhe.de, www.wasserchemie.uni-karlsruhe.de/ihss2006/ The complete application for the bursary should follow the guidelines for travel awards reported on the IHSS web page and has to be sent before Dec. 31, 2005 to Dr. Paul Bloom (prb@umn.edu). For more information please look into the website of the IHSS: http://www.ihss.gatech.edu; "Travel awards".

TRAINING BURSARIES
AIM Starting this year, for the first time, these bursaries will allow students to spend 1-3 months training/research periods at leading laboratories with the aim of enhancing their PhD work and becoming acquainted with new techniques and new aspects of HS and NOM research. GUIDELINES and APPLICATION Proposals may be submitted by graduate students (MSc, PhD) and young scientists. Detailed information is given in NEWSLETTER 22 or on the webpage of the society (http://www.ihss.gatech.edu). All applications must be received by May 15 of each odd year. Please note that there will not be any call for training bursaries in 2006 as the IHSS will give only travel bursaries for participation of students to the Karlsruhe meeting. The next call for training bursaries will be in January 2007. For more information see the website of the IHSS: http://www.ihss.gatech.edu; "Travel awards". TRAINING BURSARIES for 2005 Seven applications were received by 15th of July 2005. The bursaries committee is examining them and will notify results to applicants within the second half of September.

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IHSS STANDARD AND REFERENCE COLLECTION
New Reference Sample from the Antarctica At the recent meeting of the IHSS Board we approved a grant of $21,000 to purchase supplies and help support a graduate student for a sampling trip to Antarctica to obtain 50 g of fulvic acid (FA) for the Collection, from Pony Lake. The IHSS funding is supplementary to a major grant from the US National Science Foundation to a team led by Yo Chin of The Ohio State University and Diane McKnight of the University of Colorado. They will be leaving in December 2005 to do the sampling. Pony Lake is in an environment that lacks higher plants and there is no input from soil organic matter to the lake. The FA from Pony Lake represents a zero terrestrial input end-member of aquatic NOM and it has no input of lignin residues. The importance of this type of FA derives from the fact that because no higher plants can grow in this environment the FA is derived from alga and microbes. Samples of microbially-derived fulvic acid from Lake Fryxell in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in South Victoria Land, Antarctica were isolated during an earlier trip in the late 1980's. The C13 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of fulvic acids from Lake Fryxell showed a predominance of aliphatic and carbohydrate carbons. Although a large decrease in the DOC concentration occurred during the transition to ice-free conditions (from 7.7 to 2.7 mM), the changes in the DOM fractionation were relatively small. The nitrogen content of all fulvic acid and transphilic acid fractions decreased significantly during the transition and the delta(15)N values became heavier for all fractions. The only discernible change in the C-13 NMR spectra of all the fractions was a decrease in a peak in the region corresponding to amide carbons. These results suggest that preferential loss of N-containing molecules of fulvic acids and transphilic acids are associated with the considerable loss of DOM in midsummer .The reference sample that they will prepare for IHSS will be isolated from DOM in Pony Lake, Cape Royds, Antarctica. The Pony Lake fulvic acid is similar to the Lake Fryxell sample and the site has several advantages in terms of the logistics involved in collecting a large volumes sample: · · · · · high DOC concentrations (30-95 mgC/L); about 20% of the DOC is fulvic acid based on our previous studies, protected status because of its location near a historic hut (Shackleton's hut from the 1907 expedition), documentation of lake ecosystem condition being similar in the past, based on studies conducted by the biologist on the 1907 expedition, ice-free conditions with significant wind-mixing in summer, proximity to McMurdo Station, the large US research base with a modern analytical laboratory.
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In the developing the plan for the larger volume collection, the group worked with the environmental group of the US Antarctic Program. To prepare the new reference sample, the water will be filtered on site and then pumped to the helicopter pad and shipped by helicopter sling load to the Crary Laboratory at McMurdo Station for processing. This approach will minimize the environmental problems associated with processing the sample in the field, such as disposing of the effluent and operating a larger camp. Fulvic Acid from Elliot Soil Recently Michael Hayes and his group at Limerick University completed the extraction and preparation of our third batch of FA from the Elliott soil. This sample will replace the current batch of Elliott soil FA when it is sold out in about a year from now.
Maria de Nobili, Paul Bloom

IHSS MEMBERS NEWS
Dr. Robert (Bob) L. Wershaw retired in March, 2005 from the U.S. Geological Survey after 41 years of employment. His research project "Organic Polyelectrolytes" encompassed humic substances in soil, sediment, and water as well as other components of natural organic matter and their interactions with various contaminants. Beginning with some of his original attempts to measure the occurrence and fate of organic pesticides in the environment, this research quickly translated into studies of the interaction of these pesticides with natural organic matter in soils, sediments, and water. As little was known about the chemical and physical structure of natural organic matter, Bob focused on original research on organic matter structure that became a basis for understanding partitioning interactions between various organic contaminants and natural organic matter. This structural model described organic matter molecules assembling as a bipolar membrane structure on soils and sediment surfaces, and as aggregate colloids in aqueous suspension. The physical structural properties of natural organic matter are currently a topic of significant research interest, and Bob's career research on this topic has made him an acknowledged leader in this field. Bob has maintained a research interest in the fate of contaminants in the environment as evidenced by his recent research on organic arsenicals fed to poultry and the fate of these arsenicals in poultry wastes disposed on soils as fertilizer. All of these research endeavors relied on a fundamental understanding of organic biogeochemistry, through scholarship, tenacity, and a unique ability to select critical research fields that have been ignored by the researcher community. Bob's major scientific activity after retirement has been to promote and organize open access electronic publication of environmental research.
Jerry Leenheer

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PhD Thesis
Assessment of Concentration and Fractionation Methods for the Structural Characterization of Dissolved Organic Matter in Waters
MÝller, Margit B. UniversitÄt Karlsruhe (TH), July 2004, Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Fritz H. Frimmel Engler-Bunte-Institut, Division of Waterchemistry, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany Abstract Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is ubiquitous in all aquatic systems. Both the composition as well as the concentration of DOM in natural waters are highly variable and are functions of the origin, formation conditions, and age, i.e. the degree of biogeochemical modification of the precursor material. Components of the DOM can be of natural as well as of anthropogenic origin. In most aquatic systems, compounds of natural origin form the major part of the DOM. Among these, humic substances (HS) are the most abundant ones and therefore play an important role in aquatic systems as well as in water technology. Molecular size and structure of the DOM components are key parameters for understanding their behavior both in aquatic environments and in water treatment processes. The aim of this work therefore was to investigate the structural composition of various molecular size fractions of DOM of different origin. For this purpose, two samples representative of different precursor materials and of a different degree of modification were selected: a humic-rich sample of natural origin from the brownwater lake Hohloh in the Northern Black Forest, Germany and an effluent from the wastewater treatment plant of the city of Karlsruhe, Germany (anthropogenic origin). Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and multi-stage ultrafiltration (mst-UF) were used as fractionation methods. The structural composition of the DOM fractions was investigated using Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( C MAS NMR). The preparation of samples which are suitable in amount (mass) and composition (relative content of organic carbon) for
13 13 13

C Magic Angle

C MAS NMR analysis requires a concentration of the sample before

fractionation. From the three concentration methods which were compared (adsorption onto XAD8resin, rotary evaporation, and ultrafiltration), ultrafiltration was the most suitable method because it resulted in the highest DOC recovery and also in a removal of inorganic salts from the sample. A comparison of the fractionation methods SEC and mst-UF showed that SEC is superior to mstUF both in terms of separation efficiency and reproducibility. The separation efficiency was evaluated by investigating the molecular size distribution of SEC and mst-UF fractions from the same sample using asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4). Fractionation by SEC, however, has the drawbacks of diluting the sample and of introducing inorganic salts into it due to the use of
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a buffered eluent. This requires an additional sample preparation step before NMR analysis to remove the salts. For the brownwater sample, similar trends regarding the relative content of certain structural groups were observed for the SEC and mst-UF fractions: The relative content of carbohydrates and methyl groups was highest in the fractions of nominally large molecular size and decreased with decreasing size. On the other hand, the relative contents of branched aliphatic carbon, branched O-alkyl carbon, and COOR carbon increased with decreasing size. Based on extensive data which are available for the brownwater sample in the literature and on an extended interpretation of the NMR data, independent information on the molecular size of the sample components could be deduced. It was concluded that the average molecular size of the majority of the DOM components indeed did decrease from nominally large to nominally small fractions. Hence, in addition to yielding information on the structural composition of the fractions, this extended interpretation of the NMR data also confirmed that with both fractionation methods a separation according to different hydrodynamic radii (Re) could be achieved. Fractionation experiments with both the wastewater effluent and with selected model compounds, however, showed that interactions between the separation medium (SEC column, UF membrane) and sample components can negatively affect the separation according to different Re values. This demonstrates that the above mentioned conclusion therefore is, however, only valid for the investigated brownwater sample and the experimental conditions used in this study. The structural data for the brownwater fractions which have been determined in this work are useful for future studies regarding, e. g., the removal of certain fractions by different water treatment processes such as flocculation, adsorption onto activated carbon, or membrane filtration and also for the investigation of the interaction of DOM fractions/components with other water constituents. The structural data are therefore useful with respect to both water technologyoriented and scientific studies of the brownwater DOM. Publications · MÝller, M. B., Schmitt, D., Frimmel F. H. (2000): Fractionation of Natural Organic Matter by Size Exclusion Chromatography ­ Properties and Stability of Fractions. Environ. Sci. Technol. 34 (23): 4867-4872. · · Schmitt, D., MÝller, M. B., Frimmel, F. H. (2000): Metal Distribution in Different Size Fractions of Natural Organic Matter. Acta hydrochim. hydrobiol. 28 (7): 400-410. MÝller, M. B., Frimmel, F. H. (2002): A New Concept for the Fractionation of DOM as a Basis for Its Combined Chemical and Biological Characterization. Wat. Res. 36 (10): 26432655. · MÝller, M. B., Fritz, W., Lankes, U., Frimmel, F. H. (2004): Ultrafiltration of Nonionic Surfactants and Dissolved Organic Matter. Environ. Sci. Technol. 38 (4): 1124-1132.

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·

MÝller, M. B.: Bewertung von Anreicherungs- und Fraktionierungsverfahren fÝr die strukturelle Charakterisierung der gelÆsten organischen Substanz in GewÄssern. PhD thesis, UniversitÄt Karlsruhe, 2004, 185 p. ISSN 1612-118X. Available via: Prof. Dr. F. H. Frimmel, fritz.frimmel@ebi-wasser.uni-karlsruhe.de.

Margit B. MÝller received the IHSS MALCOLM AWARD in SÖo Pedro ­ Brazil 2004 for her contribution " Structural Characterization of Brownwater SEC Fractions by Spectroscopy".
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C MAS NMR

NEW BOOKS

HUMIC SUBSTANCES AND SOIL AND WATER ENVIRONMENT
MARTIN-NETO, L.; MILORI, D.M.B.P.; SILVA, W.T.L. (Eds.) 2004

This book is a compilation of 240 World-wide abbreviated papers submitted to "XII International Meeting of International Humic Substances Society". The Meeting was held in July, 2004, in SÖo Pedro ­ Brazil. The book is divided into 10 main chapters: Organic matter and climate change Organic matter in aquatic systems Ecological functions of humic substances Organic agriculture and plant growth effects Structural aspects and characterization of humic substances Soil amendment and remediation: the role of humic substances Applications of humic products: commercial, composting, agriculture, environmental and pollution control, medicinal, sensors, others Xenobiotics and humic substances interactions Organic matter and properties of tropical soils Water treatment and natural organic matter

This book is an excellent tool to improve the knowledge in Humic Substance Science & Technology, as well as, to know the "State of the Art" of this important and multidisciplinary

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research subject. The price is US$ 50.00 plus shipping expense (please check the www.ihss.gatech.edu link IHSS products/current prices of IHSS products for order and information about shipping to different countries).
Ladislau Martin-Neto

Soil Sampling, Preparation, and Analysis, Second Edition, by Kim H. Tan hardcover book (623pp,ISBN #0849334993) by Taylor and Francis - CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. This second edition reflects Dr. Tan's increasing ability to convey in a concise and captivating way years of first hand laboratory experience. The book provides an easy but comprehensive introduction to the methods and principles of soil sampling and analysis, including recent advances and discussion on sources of errors and variability of results. This aspect makes the book particularly useful as a teaching and easy to consult reference material. Space is also given to common procedures for extraction and analysis in soil plant testing and instrumentation. All chapters have been revised and updated and the new edition features three new chapters on soil and plant test methods, electron microscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance.
Maria De Nobili

Chemical Processes in Soils, by M. A. Tabatabai and D. L. Sparks "Soil - perfect home for the actual and figurative roots of all life, source of life-essential chemical elements, recycler of water and carbon, cleanser of ecosystems, essence of beauty of and comfort" R.J. Bartlett & D.S. Ross, p. 461. A thorough understanding of the chemical and biological processes taking place within the soil under our feet is critical for those studying or working in the agricultural, ecological, environmental, earth, and soil sciences. This book will serve them well. Edited by M.A. Tabatabai and D.L. Sparks. 2005, Hardcover, 723 pages, SSSA Book Ser. 8. ISBN: 0-89118-843-6. SSSA Member Price: $72.00 Non-member Price: $90.00

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Chapters by present and former IHSS members: Chapter 1. Chemistry of Soil Organic Matter pp. 1-150, C.E. Clapp, M.H.B. Hayes, A.J. Simpson & W.L. Kingery Chapter 4. Chemistry of Potassium in Soils pp. 227-292. P.M. Huang Chapter 5. Chemistry of Micronutrients in Soils pp. 293-308, L.M. Shuman Chapter 8. Soil Acidity pp. 411-459, P.R. Bloom, U.L.Skyllberg & M.E. Sumner Chapter 9. Chemistry of Redox Processes in Soils pp.461-487, R.J. Bartlett & D.S. Ross Chapter 10. Metal Ion Complexation by Soil Humic Substances pp.563-617. N. Senesi & E. Loffredo

C.E. Clapp

PAST CONFERENCES
Humic Science & Technology Conference VIII Northeastern University's international Humic Science & Technology Conference VIII was held from March 16 - 18 in Boston, Massachusetts. HS&T is the new name for the Humic Substances Seminars started at Northeastern in 1997. The Conference attracted researchers from 13 countries and 10 U.S. states. HS&T VIII was dedicated to Dr. Ladislau Martin Neto, Director of the EMBRAPA Agricultural Instrumentation Center, SÄo Carlos SP, Brazil and the Honorary Chair was Professor Nicola Senesi of the University of Bari, Italy. The program included a daylong symposium entitled "Humic Aggregates: Measurement, Mechanisms and Properties" held in honor of Dr. Robert Wershaw on his retirement from the US Geological Survey in Denver. The symposium was organized by Drs. Jerry Leenheer and George Aiken and featured the following speakers (in order of presentation): Jerry Leenheer, Mike Perdue, Bill Cooper, Thorsten Reemtsma, Martha Wells, Mike Hayes, Russell Christman, Steve Cabaniss, Patricia Maurice, George Aiken, Michael Reddy, Yo Chin, Diane McKnight and Kaelin Cawley. The program was a fine tribute to Dr. Wershaw, who has made lasting contributions to humic science and initiated the first Humic Substances Seminar at Northeastern.

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Another welcome feature was a special session on HSs Biochemistry and Physiology, organized by Prof. Christian Steinberg of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany. The speakers were Drs. David Hopkins, Steinberg, Ralph Menzel, Nicola Senesi and Yona Chen. Other HS&T VIII topics included but were not limited to 1) high