Newsletters of the PP - Commission are produced regularly; NL 12 -14 came out 1996 and 1997. NL 15 as the last issue in the Inter - Congress Period (1995 - 1999) will be published in December 1998. It will contain the list of abstracts of the symposium in Lanzhou and some announcements regarding the INQUA Congress in Durban, S.A.

NL 12 (May 1996) contains e.g. a detailed report of the Business Meeting of the PP - Commission at the last INQUA Congress 1995 in Berlin. Some problems and suggestions for discussion in the Inter - Congress period were placed (p. 6 - 9). Abstracts of papers given in Berlin are also included.

NL 13 (Nov. 1996) contains especially a list of corresponding members with addresses etc.

NL 14 (Dec. 1997) contains e.g. the 2nd draft of the Paleopedology Glossary (see below) and the abstracts of the papers given at the International PP - Symposium in Rauischholzhausen near Giessen, Germany.

All published Newsletters are available in INTERNET on the homepage of the PP - Commission (http://www.fadr.msu.ru/inqua).

a) M. Singer, Davis, CA, USA, chairman of the Inter - American Group on Paleopedology will accelerate the cooperation with colleagues from Canada and South America and will try to find money for joint programs. Unfortunately nobody from South America could attend the meeting.

b) The Working Group responsible for the Paleopedology Glossary, presented its second draft in NL 14 (J. A. Catt). The WG is asked to present a final draft in Durban for discussion in the Afternoon Workshop “Classification of Paleosols and Paleopedology Glossary’’ hopefully for final approval. - D. A. Wysocki, Lincoln, Ne, USA presented a first draft of a comprehensive horizon nomenclature for buried paleosols at the symposium. He was asked to extend his version for presentation and discussion at the mentioned Afternoon Workshop of the PP - Commission in Durban. All colleagues are asked to take part in the discussion of both topics. Especially colleagues from USA should try to combine geological and pedological viewpoints : the term ‘geosol’ is on one side a fundamental unit in pedostratigraphy but on the other side is not mentioned in the “Glossary of Soil Science Terms’’ (Soil Science Society of America (Ed.) 1997, 138pp).

a) During the next INQUA Congress in Durban the PP - Commission will have its main symposium entitled :“ Paleosol sequences as evidence of long- and short-term climatic cycles’’ (Convenors : A. Bronger, J.A. Catt and A. O. Makeev) for which we have 2 x 1.5 hours in the morning, probably on August 10 ( according to the Second Circular ). We will also have two Afternoon Workshops (Poster Sessions).

1. “Classification of Paleosols and Paleopedology Glossary’’ (see above)

(Convenor : J.A. Catt).

2. “Biological indicators in Paleosols and their climatic evidence’’

(Convenor : B. Urban).

b) For the year 2000 A. O. Makeev plan to organize an International. Working Meeting (IWM) on Paleopedology in the beautiful ancient city of Suzdal (east of Moscow) in the second half of July which will be combined with the Meeting of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Society of Russia.

c) For the year 2001 a proposal is made by N. Kostic, Beograd / Yugoslavia to organize a IWM in the northern part of the country. Excursion to famous loess-paleosol sequences, e.g. Stari Slankamen at the interfluve of Tisza and Danube can be offered.

Further proposals of PP-Meetings for 2002 and beyond are most welcome and will be discussed during the next PP-Business Meeting in Durban.

Whereas the reviewed papers of the International Symposium in Amsterdam 1970 came out only one year later the reviewed manuscripts of the Champaign symposium came out in “Quaternary International’’, Vol. 51/52 only end of 1998. Besides 13 full papers (pp. 87 -221) it contains numerous short papers including propositions (position statements etc.), essays (free style discussion of a subject deemed important), abstracts and short papers. A table of contents is included in this NL. - Twelve papers originally presented at a symposium of the XIV INQUA Congress 1995 in Berlin entitled “Reconstruction and Climatic Implications of Quaternary Paleosol Sequences’’ organized by the PP-Commission came out in a special issue of Catena end of 1998 (vol.34, pp. 1-207). A table of contents is also included in this NL. - Papers, presented at the IWM in Rauischholzhausen, Germany 1997 are in process of review for publication in special issues of Catena and Quaternary International hopefully within the next year.

It was decided by the assembly of the Commission meeting to publish up to 25 papers, six to eight pages each, being refereed by at least two reviewers.

W. D. Nettleton (USA) and X. M. Fang (China) were elected being editors of the volume, which should come out if possible until Durban. Therefore all papers have to be submitted until Nov. 30. The accepted articles will be published in Chinese Science Bulletin, the official journal of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), hopefully until Durban.