Canadian Society of Soil Science

Canadian Society of Soil Science
Newsletter

November 2000

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

As incoming president I would like to congratulate Martin Carter who was appointed President-elect and thank Darwin Anderson (past-president) who leaves Council after 3 years of valued service. I also welcome Denis Angers (Eastern Councillor) and Marie-Josée Garand (Treasurer) to the CSSS Council. Gary Patterson has stepped down as CSSS treasurer after 5 years of exemplary service, and deserves a round of applause for his effort in ensuring the financial health of the society.

My term as president started this summer at the CSSS annual meeting in Winnipeg. Dave Burton, Tee Boon Goh, Dave Lobb and others from the local conference organizing committee are to be commended for their efforts in hosting the conference. The social function organized by the graduate students (Soils Dept., Univ. of Manitoba) was outstanding, with festivities continuing long past the official end time. At the conference there was considerable discussion about the significant declining attendance at the annual conference, particularly graduate students. As one member stated "more CSSS members attend the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) conference than our own conference". Reasons put forward included the high cost for students to attend the CSSS conference, the format of the joint AIC-CSSS meeting, and the limited time for technical/science sessions, among others. The concern expressed by members resulted in CSSS Council proposing a series of independent (from AIC) annual meeting in cooperation with other science societies. The proposal received strong support at the annual general meeting. This coming year the CSSS annual meeting will be held independently at the University of Guelph on Aug. 2^nd - 4^th , 2001, in conjunction with the International Humic Substances Society, immediately following the International Conference on Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements. Gary Parkin and Paul Voroney are taking the lead in organizing the conference. In 2002, preliminary plans have been approved to hold the annual conference at Banff, Alberta, in cooperation with the Canadian Geophysical Union(CGU). The CGU holds their annual meeting in Banff every second year, using the same facilities and contracted conference organizers. Thus, logistics for meeting rooms, banquets, accomodation, etc, are the same. This allows the CGU to spend a major part of their organizing effort on the science program of the conference. In my opinion, for a small society like the CSSS (and getting smaller!) , this approach makes a lot of sense. Possibilities for our own annual conference include alternating between fixed eastern (e.g. Quebec City?) and western (e.g. Banff?) locations for independent meetings, and continued cooperation with AIC as desired. With fixed locations the logistics for the meeting are already in place and a program chair for organizing the annual meeting technical/science sessions could be appointed from anywhere in the country. For example, in the SSSA, the program chairs for the various science divisions (S1, S2, etc) are elected. An elected/appointed program chair (possibly also a member of CSSS council?), would allow the CSSS to take an active role in the outcome/planning of the program at the annual meeting. The downside to fixed locations are obvious- no more visits to various regions in the country.

Well, all of the above is just my opinion. However, I thought it would be useful to let you (members) know that I will be engaging the CSSS Council in discussions on these issues. Your opinion is also important, of course. I encourage you to let Council know what you think. The annual meeting is too important for us to neglect. Either we make the CSSS annual meeting worthwhile for more members AND STUDENTS to want to attend, or we will soon have to shut it down. I encourage all members to plan on attending the Guelph-2001 meeting (bring a student(s)).

In addition to exploring informal cooperation with other science societies regarding our annual conference, CSSS Council is also exploring mechanisms for more formal interaction and cooperation. I have had discussions with the presidents/past presidents of the Canadian Society of Animal Science, the Canadian Society of Agronomy, and Canadian Society of Agrometeorology, regarding the need for a national umbrella/voice for Agriculture science societies. Similar discussion have been taking place with the president of the Canadian Geophysical Union regarding the need for a national voice for Environmental Earth sciences societies. An example of this in other disciplines is PLANT CANADA (The Federation of Canadian Plant Science Societies). Opinions on this from members would also be appreciated.

- Gary Kachanoski

CSSS Council

President Gary Kachanoski University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A4 Tel: (306) 966-5754 Fax: (306) 966-5756 Email:Gary.Kachanoski@usask.ca	President-Elect Martin Carter Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Charlottetown, PE C1A 7M8 Tel: (902) 566-6869 Fax: (902) 566-6821 Email: carterm@em.agr.ca
Past President Régis Simard Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Ste-Foy, QC G1V 2J3 Tel: (418) 657-7985 Fax: (418) 648-2402 Email: simardr@em.agr.ca	Secretary Craig Drury Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Harrow, ON N0R 1G0 Tel: (519) 738-2251 Fax: (519) 738-2929 Email: druryc@em.agr.ca
Treasurer Marie-Josée Garand Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada St. John's, NF A1E 5Y7 Tel: (709) 772-7476 Fax: (709) 772-6064 Email: garandmj@em.agr.ca	Eastern Councillor Denis Angers Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada Ste-Foy, QC G1V 2J3 Tel: (418) 657-7985 Fax: (418) 648-2402 Email: angersd@em.agr.ca
Western Councillor Barbara Kishchuk Canadian Forest Service Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5 Tel: (780) 435-7336 Fax: (780) 435-7359 Email: bkishchu@nrcan.gc.ca"	Student Representative Alain Plante University of Alberta Edmonton, AB T6E 2R4 Tel: (780) 492-4143 Fax: (780) 492-1767 Email: aplante@ualberta.ca

STUDENT NEWS
      While the conference registration fees were not the most student-friendly, the Annual Technical Meetings of the CSSS held in Winnipeg in July were quite successful. The small number of attendees had ample opportunity to interact with each other, and the student representation was good. A special congratulations goes out to the winners of the Bentley Awards for student oral presentations:

     1^st place: Alain Plante, University of Alberta, "A field study on the dynamics of soil aggregates in two contrasting soils"
2^nd place: Leo Nicolas, University of Manitoba, "Identifying the potential of Manitoba soils to degrade diesel fuel by microbial enumeration and diversity"

     Unfortunately, no poster awards were presented this year due to low numbers. A special thanks also goes out to Chris Unger and the other graduate students of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Manitoba for putting on an evening BBQ. The BBQ was very well attended and several people took FULL advantage of a great social event. The U of Manitoba students have since become the second chapter of the Friends of the Pedon - an exciting development!

     I know that those in attendance in Winnipeg look forward to next year's meetings in Guelph. Students can rest assured that Drs. Voroney and Parkin, who are already hard at work organizing the event, will have a great scientific program, an exciting social program for students, and student-friendly conference and accommodation fees. I look forward to meeting more students next year. In addition, keep in mind that my term as graduate student representative on CSSS Council will end at the meetings in Guelph and a new student will be needed to help continue the momentum-building.

     I have included below a list of the theses that were recently defended at the University of Alberta. The plan is to have all university/college departments involved in soils research and education from across Canada to be included in publishing a list of theses in every issue of the newsletter. The list is another method of networking the authors of soils research with their audience of peers. If you as a student or faculty/ administrator would like to be included in the list of published theses, please contact me via email at aplante@ualberta.ca.

     Lastly, I would like to encourage all students of soil science to stay in touch, via email or the CSSS website, and to be involved in the Society. If you have any questions about student awards, career planning, or any other aspect of CSSS, please contact me by any means suitable.

Alain Plante
Graduate Student Representative
CSSS Council

Theses recently defended at the University of Alberta:

Pitchford, Christine L. Season of seeding, mowing & seed mix richness for native plant community development in the aspen parkland . M.Sc. in Land Reclamation & Remediation with MA Naeth
Manunta, Paolo. Modelling strategies of the soil plant atmosphere continuum in water limited environments & elevated atmospheric CO2. Ph.D. in Water & Land Resources with Y Feng.

Renneberg, Adrian J. The form and removal of mercury from co-contaminated soils. M.Sc. in Soil Science with MJ Dudas.

Puurveen, Hendrikus. Measurement and simulation of water erosion from two hillslopes at the Breton Plots. M.Sc. in Soil Science with DJ Pluth & RC Izaurralde.

Petherbridge, Wilfred. Sod salvage and minimal disturbance pipeline
reclamation techniques: Implications for native prairie restoration. M.Sc. in Land Reclamation & Remediation with MA Naeth.

Alain Plante, Graduate Student
Representative on CSSS
Council (aplante@ualberta.ca)

strong>DICTIONARY

     The Soil and Environmental Science Dictionary is in the final stages of editing. The Dictionary should go to CRC Press by the end of the year and will be published in 2001, possibly early in the year. It will be a hard cover book and CSSS members will receive a special discount price. The dictionary will contain soil science terms from a wide range of disciplines including agronomy, botany, chemistry, ecology, forestry, meteorology, microbiology, physics, remote sensing, reclamation, and waste management. Each term will be defined and a French equivalent of the term will be given. Illustrations of selected terms will also be included in the Dictionary. An index of all terms and their French equivalent will be broken down by discipline/subject area. Many CSSS members have contributed to the production of the dictionary by helping define, review and translate terms and definitions. Their hard work has been a great help and is very much appreciated.
     Ed Gregorich, L. Turchenek, M. Carter and D. Angers

AWARDS

Travel Awards

     Dr. S.S. Malhi will receive $900 to attend and present a paper at the 5th International Symposium on "Plant-Soil Interactions at Low pH" to be held at Pretoria, South Africa (March 12-16, 2001)

     Dr. David Lobb received $500 to make an invited presentation at the 15th Conference of the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (ISTRO), at Fort Worth, Texas, (July 2-7, 2000)

     Dr. M.H. Beare will receive $1,300, is a Soil Scientist at the New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research, Christchurch, New Zealand. Dr. Beare will visit federal and provincial soil science research institutes and departments across Canada, as part of a Sabbatical leave at the Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Ottawa.

Bentley Awards

     1^st Place ($400) Alain Plante, Dept. of Renewable Resources, Univ. of Alberta for his oral paper presentation " A field study on the dynamics of soil aggregates in two contrasting soils"

     2^nd Place ($300) Leo J. Nicolas, Dept Soil Science, Univ. of Manitoba for his oral paper presentation " Identifying the potential of Manitoba soils to degrade diesel fuel by microbial enumeration and diversity"

Student Book Awards

     The book prizes are awarded to recognize excellence in Soil Science at the undergraduate level at Canadian universities. The awards are presented for the highest academic standing in a program with a substantial Soil Science component, and are administrated by the respective departments. The awards carry a maximum value of $100, and include a book plate to be placed in a book of the recipient's choice. The 2000 awardees are:

Dana Fairlie, University of Saskatchewan
Debbie Wolf, McGill University
Robert Joseph Shymanski, University of Alberta
Marie-Claude Desbiens, Université Laval
Cory Roberts, University of Guelph
Danielle Reid, University of Manitoba
Stacey Wenzel, University of British Columbia

NEW FELLOW

     Dr. David Steve Chanasyk was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Soil Science in recognition of his distinguished record of outstanding contributions and dedicated service to the discipline of soil science for 26 years.

Dave Lobb at the ISTRO Conference in Texas

     This past summer I had the honour of attending the 15^th conference of the International Soil Tillage Research Organization: ISTRO-2000 "Tillage at the Threshold of the 21^st Century: Looking Ahead". The conference was held from July 2-7 in Fort Worth, Texas. The focus of the conference was on the science and technologies of agricultural cropping related to the "tillage" or manipulation, management, and protection of the soil environment that enables sustainable, profitable production. The goal was to look ahead at "tillage" research needs for the more mature, populated, and hungrier world of tomorrow. There were approximately 300 delegates from around the world in attendance, of which at least five delegates were from Canada.

     I was invited by ISTRO to give a plenary presentation entitled "Tillage at the Threshold of the 21^st Century: New Directions in Response to Tillage Translocation and Tillage Erosion". The objectives of this presentation were: 1) to provide descriptions of the processes of tillage translocation and tillage erosion; 2) to examine the significance of these processes, and, given this knowledge, 3) to identify the future challenges and opportunities for tillage researchers and practitioners. This presentation was prepared in cooperation with my colleagues Dr. Mike J. Lindstrom (USDA-ARS), Dr. Tim A. Quine (University of Exeter, England) and Dr. Gerard Govers (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium). This presentation has been published on CD-ROM by ISTRO as part of the conference proceedings. Anyone interested in receiving a copy of my presentation can contact me ( lobbda@ms.umanitoba.ca).

     In addition to making one oral and two poster presentations on tillage translocation and tillage erosion, I worked with my colleagues to establish an ISTRO Working Group on Tillage Erosion. The current Chair of the WGTE is Mike Lindstrom and the Secretary is Dr. José Rafael Marques da Silva (Universidade de Évora, Portugal). We also finalized the preplanning for the 3^rd international symposium on tillage translocation and tillage erosion. This symposium will focus on the impacts of tillage erosion much more so than its predecessors. It is entitled "Soil Variability on Agricultural Land - Evolution, Characterisation & Importance: An International Symposium". This symposium will be held from August 28-31, 2001 at the University of Exeter, Devon, England.

     My participation in this conference served to strengthen Canada's role as a leader in tillage erosion research. The financial support from CSSS was greatly appreciated.

David Lobb

UPDATE on CSSS 2001

The annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Soil Science will be held in Guelph, Ontario next year from Aug. 2 -4. We will meet together with scientists from forestry and the International Humic Substances Society. The meeting will follow the Sixth International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements held from July 29 to Aug. 2 in Guelph. Tentative sessions for the CSSS meeting include Global C Sequestration, Organic Matter Dynamics, Modern Methods of Assessing Spatial Variability, Nutrient and Microbe Management with Manures, Soil Degradation and Remediation, Fate of Biosolids Applied on Land, Soil Science Education. Local field trips and workshops will be held on local soil and water conservation projects, modern methods in soil physics and micro-pedology. We are also planning fun trips possibly to a Blue Jays game, wine country, and Stratford Festival.

For more information and updates on the conference please see:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gparkin/ihss/Homepagex.html" or
contact pvoroney@lrs.uoguelph.ca or parkin@lrs.uoguelph.ca

Memories of the 2000 Annual Meetings in Winnipeg

Passing on the Presidency of the CSSS, from the outgoing Régis Simard (left) to the incoming President, Gary Kachanoski.

New Fellow of the CSSS Dave Chanasyk (left) receiving his award from President Kachanoski.

Dave Burton, Conference Chair, surrounded by Bentley Awards recipients, Leo Nicolas (left) and Alain Plante. Alain is also the Student Representative on the CSSS Council.

The 7^th International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis will be held at the Westin Hotel, 21-27 July 2001, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

This Symposium will bring together agricultural, forestry, and natural resource scientists / managers, chemists, fertilizer industry representatives, and others to disseminate information on methodology, terminology, interpretation and application of soil, plant and water analysis for the purpose of efficient resource management, sustainable production and environment protection.

PLENARY SESSIONS

Proficiency testing for soil and plant analysis
Soil acidity
Economic and environmental aspects of soil and plant analysis
Diagnostic methods
Advanced analytical technologies and instrumentation

The Program

For further information regarding Symposium registration, workshops, tours and accommodation, please visit our web site (www.isspa2001.com) and/or contact the Secretariat (palmmail@convservices.de).

The Calendar - Forthcoming Meetings

October 30 - November 1, 2000
14^th Québec Soil Science Specialist Association meeting (L'Association Québécoise de Spécialistes en Sciences du Sol),
University Laval's Forêt Montmorency,
Québec, Canada.
http://www.sbf.ulaval.ca/aqsss.html

November 13-16, 2000
8^th Congress of Soil Science.
Islamabad, Pakistan.
sarc@brain.net.pk

November 30 - December 1, 2000
International Conference on the Remediation and Management of Degraded Lands,
Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
E: mathew@essun1.murdoch.edu.au

December 3-8, 2000
NZSSS/ASSS Soil 2000 Conference,
Lincoln, New Zealand.
http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/cted/nzsss/

April 26-30, 2001
International Symposium on Soil Erosion Management,
Taiyuan, China.
caiqg@mx.cei.gov.cn

July 21-27, 2001
7^th Int. Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis.
Edmonton, Canada.
Anette Palm,
Fax: + 49 6307 401104
http://www.isspa2001.com
palmmail@convservices.de

July 29-August 2, 2001
6^th International Conference on Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements,
Univ. Guelph,
Guelph, Ontario.
http://icobte.crle.uoguelph.ca

August 1-3, 2001
Canadian Society of Soil Science,
Guelph, Ontario.
E: pvoroney@lrs.uoguelph.ca

August 3-9, 2001
12^th World Fertilizer Congress,
Beijing, China.
T: 86 24 2391 6261; F: 86 24 2384 3313;
E: CIEC2001@iae.syb.ac.cn ;
http://www.pb.fal.de

November 11-15, 2001
6^th International Society of Root Research Symposium,
'Roots: the Dynamic Interface between Plants and the Earth',
Nagoya, Japan.
http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jsrr/isrr/

August 14-20, 2002
17^th World Congress of Soil Science,
Bangkok, Thailand.
T: 662 940 5787; F: 662 940 5788;
E; o.sfst@nontri.ku.ac.th ; http://www.17wcss.ku.ac.th

CSSS - Business Office

The CSSS Business Office:
membership concerns, updated CSSS membership list, CJSS journal subscriptions, society publications. Contact
Steve Sheppard,
CSSS,
P.O. Box 637,
Pinawa, Manitoba, R0E 1L0, Canada;
Telephone: (204) 753-2747; Fax: (204) 753-2170;
Email: sheppards@ecomatters.com"

CSSS - Online

See the CSSS web site homepage, http://www.csss.ca for Newsletters, Council, Business Office, Annual Report, Events Page, Careers, Student, CSSS '00, important Links, and much more. Information and details for application for CSSS Awards and CSSS Travel Awards will be placed on the HomePage soon.

The CSSS Newsletter is published three (Winter, Spring, and Summer) times per year. Contributions from members are welcome. Please send contributions by email to the Eastern Councillor.

Remember "Being close to the soil keeps you young".

Arthur J. O'Donoughue,
Emeritus Member of CSSS

Canadian Society of Soil Science
P.O. Box 637
Pinawa, Manitoba R0E 1L0
phone: (204) 753-2747
fax: (204) 753-2170
e-mail: SheppardS@ECOMatters.com

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Canadian Society of Soil Science Newsletter November 2000

Canadian Society of Soil Science
Newsletter

November 2000