This conference will be co-sponsored by SEPM and NSF, with primary administration of the meeting registration and logistics provided by SEPM. In this proposal PIs seek to address these six key central scientific questions, which have significant intellectual merit: 1) What is the preservation potential of different types of paleosols in the geologic record? 2) What is the fidelity of time and event preservation recorded in paleosols? 3) Where do paleosols "fit" in sequence-stratigraphy? 4) Is the current paleoclimate "toolkit" comprised of field morphological and geochemical proxies as advanced as it can likely become? 5) To what extent can standard USDA soil physical and chemical characterization techniques be used for establishing colloidal properties of paleosols? 6) Is paleosol research adequately represented within the US National Research Council-National Science Foundation "Critical Zone"?
The "deep-time" (i.e., pre-Quaternary) community engaged in the study of fossil soils (paleosols), is currently poised to make significant new contributions to reconstructions of environmental conditions interpreted from paleosols preserved in terrestrial stratigraphic successions, providing valuable insights on past climate, landscapes, vegetation, and atmospheric chemistry. The paleopedology community, as part of the broader Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology scholarly community, shows potential for significant new growth in several areas: (1) refinement and calibration of existing paleoclimate proxies, as well as development of new proxies from surface (modern) soil systems useful for interpreting changes in environmental conditions recorded in paleosols, including precipitation amounts and seasonality, as well as temperature, biogeochemistry, and reconstructed colloidal soil properties, (2) development and refinement of geochemical proxies useful for estimating changes in paleoatmospheric chemistry, especially pCO2 and pO2, (3) interpretations of changes in terrestrial biotic productivity and in floral and faunal compositions, (4) understanding linkages between paleosols forming within fluvio-lacustrine depositional systems and their climatic, tectonic, eustatic and autocyclic forcing mechanisms, and 5) using paleosols to test veracity of new climate and energy-balance models. The paleopedology community currently relies heavily on the NSF-EAR Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology program for support of deep-time paleoclimate studies, and the Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry program for development of paleoclimate proxies from surface soil systems. The NSF Paleo-Perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) program also supports limited research on some paleoclimate systems. The proposal load to NSF-EAR Surface Earth Processes programs currently far exceeds available funding for support of paleopedological research. We recommend that NSF should invest new resources directed towards several new initiatives, as outlined in detail in what follows, including: 1) increased research support for the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program for support of deep-time paleoclimatology studies involving paleosols, 2) establishment of a Deep-Time Critical Zone Observatory Program (DTCZO), and 3) support for the DTCZO to participate in a Continental Drilling Program (with core archival and storage facility) targeting specific sedimentary basins containing terrestrial strata. Support for these three initiatives will enable the paleopedology community to answer important questions about climate change in Earth history relevant to concerns about future climate change. An assembled group numbering 42 registrants (27 Ph.D. professionals and 15 students), plus 2 National Park Service geologists, convened in a workshop held at Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) near Holbrook, in northeastern Arizona, from September 22-25, 2010. The workshop included 2 days with invited oral presentations scheduled in the morning and with poster displays in the afternoon, along with scheduled afternoon breakout sessions in which group discussions focused on specific paleopedology subjects related to identifying: a) the current state of knowledge, and b) future research opportunities. A 1-day field trip to examine Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic) fluvial and palustrine paleosol-bearing strata in PEFO served as a backdrop that allowed registrants to place workshop presentations and discussions into a real stratigraphic "context". An SEPM Special Publication (SP) Volume entitled "New Frontiers in Paleopedology and Terrestrial Paleoclimatology" currently has 16 submitted papers and should be published in December of 2012. The following agencies are gratefully acknowledged for their support of the workshop: SEPM (The Society for Sedimentary Geology), the National Science Foundation (NSF Earth Sciences Directorate, Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology and the Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry programs), ExxonMobil Corporation, Baylor University (including the Department of Geology and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research), and the US National Park Service (Petrified Forest National Park).
