Support for the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS): Activities of the President

特拉华大学的唐纳德·斯帕克斯博士将担任国际土壤科学联盟（IUSS）主席。在这个职位上，他主持了IUSS局（IUSS官员的集体名称）；监督国际空间站的管理，包括其科学活动和预算；为所有主席团和理事会会议准备事务并主持会议；协助向会员散发资料和出版物；代表国际科学研究所参加世界各地的各种科学和政策会议；代表IUSS参加美国国家科学院/美国国家研究委员会美国土壤科学委员会会议；是国际科学院驻国际科学院的代表。特别是，斯帕克斯博士将为2006年7月在费城举行的第18届世界土壤科学大会（WCSS）的规划、准备和召开提供领导。国际土壤科学研究所及其大会将促进土壤科学研究的国际信息交流和国际协调，这些研究着眼于土壤中的生物、地球物理和地球化学过程。这些过程影响水土保持、土壤质量、土地退化、粮食充足和安全、全球承载能力、全球气候变化和湿地保护。IUSS及其成员对许多具有国家和国际意义的研究项目感兴趣并参与其中，这些项目与现有和新兴的研究重点直接相关。其中包括液体、气体和生物运输等关键领域；地球生物学;微量气体通量；土壤微生物生态学；碳封存;分子环境科学在阐明离子、化学物质和微生物通过多孔介质的生物地球化学循环、物种形成、运输和命运中的应用；与微生物-化学相互作用有关的表面化学；水汽带水文学；以及从分子到全球环境的空间缩放。

Dr. Donald Sparks, University of Delaware, will serve as President of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). In this capacity he chairs the IUSS Bureau (the collective name for the IUSS Officers); has oversight of the management of IUSS, including its scientific activities and budget; prepares business for and presides at all Bureau and Council meetings; assists in dissemination of information and publications to members; represents IUSS at various scientific and policy meetings around the world; represents IUSS at the NAS/NRC U.S. Committee on Soil Science meetings; and is the IUSS representative to ICSU. Dr. Sparks will, in particular, provide leadership for the planning, preparations, and convening of the 18th World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS) in July, 2006, in Philadelphia. The IUSS and its Congress will contribute to improved international exchange of information and international coordination for soil sciences research that looks at the biological, geophysical, and geochemical processes in the soil. These processes influence soil and water conservation, soil quality, land degradation, food sufficiency and safety, global carrying capacity, global climatic change, and wetlands protection. The IUSS and its members are interested in and involved in a multitude of research initiatives that are of national and international significance and are directly related to existing and emerging research thrusts. These include key areas as liquid, gas and biologic transport; geobiology; trace gas fluxes; soil microbial ecology; carbon sequestration; molecular environmental science applications to elucidate biogeochemical cycling, speciation, transport and fate of ions, chemicals, and microbes through porous media; surface chemistry in relation to microbe-chemical interactions; vadose zone hydrology; and spatial scaling from molecular to global environments.