Critical Zone Exploration Network

Aluminium and Silicon in Soils and the Environment. 3rd-5th September, 2008, Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen A meeting organized jointly by the Clay Minerals Group of the Mineralogical Society and the British Society for Soil Science. The mineralogy and chemistry of aluminium and silicon in soils and the wider landscape is important in the context of many of the processes that are key to the environmental functions that soils perform.  These include sustainable soil fertility, soil and water acidification and the genesis of soil types. This meeting focuses on the movement, distribution and fate of aluminium and silicon within the pedosphere and the wider environment, the processes and products involved and the ways in which these can be effectively characterized. Of particular interest are the nature and rates of the chemical and biological processes involved in the release of these elements from primary soil minerals, their incorporation into secondary mineral products, their uptake by plants and their removal from the soil in solution or colloidal transport to the wider landscape. The meeting is being held to commemorate the life and work of V. C. Farmer who during his career at the Macaulay Institute made major contributions to our understanding of the mineralogy and chemistry of aluminium and silicon in soils, as well as pioneering the use of infrared spectroscopy in the identification, characterization and reactivity of the amorphous or poorly crystalline secondary minerals involved. The latest developments in these issues will be addressed by a number of eminent keynote speakers including:  Roger Parfitt (Landcare Research, Palmerston North, New Zealand) The 9th George Brown Lecture –“Allophane and imogolite: their influence in biogeochemistry.” Jon Petter Gustafsson. (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden). “Aluminium and silicon solubility in forest soils - discussion of the relevant mechanisms”. Jana Madejová. (Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Bratislava, Slovakia) “Possibilities of near IR spectroscopy in investigation of reduced charge smectites.” Sabine Petit. (CNRS, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France). Contribution of IR spectroscopy to clay minerals studies. Michael Sommer. (ZALF, Institute for Landscape Research, Müncheberg, Germany) “Lateral podzolization at landscape scale - phenomena, concepts, and process quantification.” The meeting will be based around two days of talks and a one day field trip to examine - Aspects of Podzolization in North East Scotland  Registration opens: 1st March Website: http://www.minersoc.org/pages/groups/cmg/cmg.html Enquiries:   For all enquiries and further information contact, Steve Hillier or Jane Lund by e-mail to AluSiV@macaulay.ac.uk