Conference: An International Conference Focusing on Loess and Related Topics

该奖项将为国际第四纪联盟（INQUA）黄土焦点小组主办的国际会议提供支持，该会议将于2016年9月在威斯康星大学欧克莱尔分校举行。会议将促进国际地质学家、地理学家和土壤科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泥沙组成的风成沉积物。由于其独特的性质和起源，黄土一直是地理学、地貌学和土壤学研究的重要课题。会议将汇集来自世界各地的学者，分享最近的研究成果，讨论共同感兴趣的主题和问题，并为学者探索新的合作关系的可能性提供机会。虽然自1999年以来定期召开了一系列以黄土为重点的会议，但这将是北美首次举行此类会议。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进行的大量黄土研究，并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会面、交流和合作的场所。除了促进来自不同国家的学者之间的互动，会议将促进黄土科学的进步，这将使更好地绘制和利用与黄土有关的独特土壤，并将促进过去很少受到研究关注的黄土地区的研究。世界上农业最富庶地区的许多土壤都是由黄土形成的，这意味着对黄土的地质和空间特性的研究为了解它所在地区过去的地质和气候条件提供了重要信息。这次会议预计将吸引125到150名学者，它将是丹佛美国地质学会年会之前的一系列会议之一。会议将持续四天，其中两天在会议室举行，两天在实地进行，届时学者们将能够亲自考察具有代表性的黄土特征。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；论黄土在风沙薄层地区的作用并在黄土景观，风成搬运系统，和黄土搬运面概念。

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.