Soil and Sediment
Tuesday, 17 January 2012 10:54
Sediment archives (alluvial, colluvial, limnic) provide records of changing soil erosion and the transport/deposition of sediment by fluvial processes. The degree of soil erosion and the extent and volume of sedimentary deposits provide information on the nature and timing of past human impacts, and the impact of environmental variability (particularly climate) on human society (e.g., Brown, 2002; Dearing and Jones, 2003; Gregory et al., 2006; Wasson, 1994). This Theme will integrate soil/sediment records to provide spatially distributed patterns through time and across different regions. The results may be used for interpreting past levels of landscape disturbance, past human-environment interactions, describing trajectories of soil/sediment movements up to the present, defining baselines, reconstructing past sediment budgets, and developing and validating process models. Through interpretation of catchment behavior (hydrological and sediment cycles) within the LUCIFS WG, this Theme will make an important contribution to other PHAROS Themes, PAGES Foci (e.g., Focus 2), IHOPE and the Global Land Project.
