Conference: An International Conference Focusing on Loess and Related Topics

该奖项将支持由国际第四纪联盟(INQUA)黄土焦点小组主办的一次国际会议，该会议将于2016年9月在威斯康星大学欧克莱尔分校举行。这次会议将促进国际地质学家、地理学家和土壤学家之间的网络和合作，他们的研究兴趣集中在黄土上，黄土是一种主要由风吹淤泥组成的风成沉积物。黄土因其独特的性质和成因，一直是地理学、地貌学和土壤学研究的热点。这次会议将汇集来自世界各地的学者，分享最近的研究成果，讨论共同感兴趣的话题和问题，并为学者提供机会，探索新的合作关系的可能性。尽管自1999年以来定期召开了一系列以黄土为主题的会议，但这将是北美第一次举行这样的会议。这次会议将提供一个机会，向国际观众展示美国研究人员在美国中部大陆所做的大部分黄土研究，它将为许多通常不与欧洲和中国的黄土学者直接互动的美国人提供一个见面、建立网络和合作的场所。除了促进来自不同国家的学者之间的互动外，这次会议还将促进黄土科学的进步，使与黄土相关的独特土壤能够更好地绘制和使用，并将促进过去很少受到研究关注的黄土地区的研究。世界上最富饶的农业地区的许多土壤都是在黄土中形成的，这意味着对黄土的地质和空间特性的研究提供了有关过去地质和气候条件的重要信息。这次会议预计将吸引125至150名学者参加，这将是美国地质学会在丹佛举行年会之前的一系列聚会之一。会议将进行四天，其中两天在会议室，两天在实地，学者们将能够第一手研究具有代表性的黄土基础特征。在室内和实地讨论期间，特别强调的主题将是作为黄土来源的河流和冰川系统；黄土在只有薄薄的风沙沉积表面的地区的作用；以及黄土地貌、风沙输送系统和黄土输送面的概念。

This award will provide support for an international conference sponsored by the Loess Focus Group of the International Quaternary Union (INQUA) to be held at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in September 2016. The conference will foster networking and collaboration among an international assemblage of geologists, geographers, and soil scientists whose research interests focus on loess, which is an eolian sediment largely consisting of wind-blown silt. Because of its distinctive character and origin, loess has been the topic of considerable research in geography, geomorphology, and soil science. The conference will bring together scholars from around the world to share results from recent research, discuss topics and issues of mutual interest, and provide opportunities for scholars to explore possibilities for new collaborative relationships. Although a series of conferences focusing on loess have been convened periodically since 1999, this will be the first such gathering in North America. The conference will provide an opportunity to highlight much of the loess research in the mid-continental U.S. being done by U.S. researchers to an international audience, and it will provide a venue within which many Americans, who often do not interact directly with loess scholars in Europe and China, to meet, network, and collaborate. In addition to facilitating interactions among scholars from different nations, the conference will catalyze advances in loess science that will enable better mapping and use of the distinctive soils associated with loess, and it will promote research in loess areas that have received little research attention in the past.Many of the soils in the richest agricultural parts of the world are formed in loess, which means that research about the geology and spatial properties of loess provides important information about past geologic and climatic conditions wherever it is found. The conference is expected to attract between 125 and 150 scholars, and it will be one of a number of gatherings preceding the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver. The conference will be conducted over four days, with two days in meeting rooms and two days at field sites where scholars will be able to examine representative loess-based features firsthand. Topics of special emphasis during indoor and field-based discussions will be on fluvial and glacial systems as loess sources; on the role of loess in regions with only thin veneers of wind-blown sediments; and on loess landscapes, eolian transportational systems, and the concept of loess transport surfaces.