Preface Man versus nature: Natural and anthropogenic footprints recorded in the soil archives S.J. Kluiving a,b,c, ⁎, J.M. van Mourik d , C. Zaccone e VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities (Department of Archaeology), De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Research Institute for the Heritage and History of the Cultural Landscape and Urban Environment (CLUE), VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands University of Amsterdam, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), Department of Palaeoecology, Science Park 904, Postbox 94248, 1090 GE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Dept. of the Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia, via Napoli 25, I-71121 Foggia, Italy article info Article history: Received 15 December 2014 Received in revised form 27 January 2015 Accepted 28 January 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Natural and anthropogenic soil processes Soil as a record of the past The subdivision Soil as a Record of the Past (SRP) was founded during the General Assembly 2012 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The main mission of the subdivision SRP within the division Soil System Sciences (SSS) was to create oral and poster sessions focusing on the re- sults of studies utilizing soils as archives. This includes: 1. Soils and palaeosols that provide information related to soil genesis and landscape evolution. 2. Results of analysis of soil records that may be relevant for disciplines such as soil science, geoecology, archaeology and landscape ecology. 3. Various analytical techniques that are (and have become) available to ‘read’ the soil records. 4. Bringing together disparate information from various soil records to contribute effectively to studies of the evolution of natural and cul- tural landscapes. Environmental change and human activity both have an impact on soil development making soils and palaeosols important and signifi- cant as long-term geo-ecological and geo-archaeological archives. SRP sessions include relevant aspects of soils in various climatic settings, Catena xxx (2015) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities (Department of Archaeology), De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail address: s.j.kluiving@vu.nl (S.J. Kluiving). CATENA-02426; No of Pages 3 including using soil and sediment micromorphology, to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and historical and recent human impact on geo- ecosystems. An objective of the SRP subdivision board was to organize oral and poster sessions during the annual EGU General Assembly in Vienna, and to share the results of innovative applications of soil re- cord analysis with the broad scientific community in the form spe- cial volumes of scientific journals. These special volumes consist of a selection of presentations from these annual conference sessions. We hope that these special volumes will awaken interest in soil and landscape evolution beyond the immediate Soil Science community, especially with respect to the actual and future values of soil archives as part of our geo-heritage. The strength of SRP may be its overall view on analytical applications to soil records. In addition it provides a basis for progress in studies of landscape evolution, human impact and global change. Traditionally, the concept of soil is often associated with relevant themes such as agriculture, fertility, erosion, degradation and mapping. In the past, data from soil archives were an interesting by-product of soil research, especially for landscape evolution, archaeology, environmen- tal problems and global change studies. There is an increasing need for data to help understand important aspects of global change and, conse- quently for the multi proxy analysis of soil records. Several clusters of analytic techniques are now available to study soil records, including: 1. Various techniques focused on the analysis of biotical remains, pres- ent in almost every soil. Conventional and state-of-the-art methods are pollen analyses, translated in ecological finger prints of the envi- ronmental development during active soil evolution. Other tech- niques used to unlock geoecological information from soil records, include the analysis of phytoliths, diatoms and macro fossil remains. 2. Soil micromorphology analysis, used to extract relevant information about the composition of the soil matrix and the location of pedogen- ic and micro-structural features. 3. Inorganic and organic chemistry, which is used to provide informa- tion about the presence and vertical distribution of elements, ions and isotopes in soil records. This is very helpful for understanding soil genesis and may contribute to knowledge of environmental evo- lution and human activity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2015.01.026 0341-8162/© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Catena journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/catena Please cite this article as: Kluiving, S.J., et al., Man versus nature: Natural and anthropogenic footprints recorded in the soil archives, Catena (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2015.01.026