International Geographical Union
Environment Evolution Commission
Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Science
29, Staromonetny per. Moscow 119017, Russia Tel.: +7(095) 238 02 98 Fax: +7(095) 959 00 33
e-mail:
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The Environment Evolution Commission
1. Membership
A. Chairman Professor Andrei Velichko, Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Science. 29 Staromonetny lane, Moscow 119017, Russia.
Phone +7(495) 238 02 98 Fax: +7(495) 959 00 33
e-mail:
Secretary Dr. Elena Novenko e-mail:
The Environment Evolution Commission consists of 10 regional working groups. The WGs include specialists in environmental evolution (paleobotanists, paleopedologists, paleoglaciologists, etc.), paleoclimatologists, as well as specialists in numerical modeling. The leaders of WGs are the members of Commission Steering Committee:
Dr. T. Boettger. (Germany). Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department of Isotope Hydrology, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, D-06120 Halle.
Dr. W. Bleuton (Netherlands) Utrecht University, Postbus 80125, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands, phone\fax +31 30 253 33 88
e-mail:
Dr. N Catto (Kanada)
Editor, Quaternary International, Department of Geography, Memorial University, St. John's NL, A1B 3X9, Canada, phone:1-709-737-8413, fax 1-709-737-3119
e-mail:
Dr. G. MacDonald (USA) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles 90095, 405 Hilgard Avenue, phone: 310-825-4321
e-mail:
Dr. P Kershow (Australia) Monash University;School of Geography and Environmental Science, Wellington Rd;;Clayton Campus;Vic; 3800;Australia,
e-mail:, phone: +61 3 99052927, fax: +61 3 99052948
Dr. Ch. Turner (Great Britain)
Quaternary Environments Group, Dept. of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK
E-mail:
Dr. M. Stancikait (Lithuania), Institute of Geology and Geography, T. Sevcenkos 13, LT 03223, Vilnius, Lithuania, E-mail: ;
Dr. V. Zernitskaya (Belarus) Institute of Geochemistry and Geophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Kuprevich street 7, 220141 Minsk, Belarus; 375-017-2635398; e-mail:
Dr. L. Bezusko (Ukraine) National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", 2 H.Skovorody Street, Kyiv (Kiev), 04070 Ukraine
B. The number of commission members in total and by country as of 31 December 2007.
Russia -10
Germany -3
Netherlands -2
Canada -3
Australia -5
USA- 2
Great Britain -3
Lithuania - 5
Belarus -4
Ukraine - 5
Total 39
2. Meetings
2005. A short meeting of the Environment Evolution Commission took place on March 8, 2005, during the DEKLIM Conference in Mainz, Germany (March 7-10, 2005) which a group of the Commission members attended.
The participants of the meeting: A.A.Velichko (chairman), T.Boettger, Ch. Turner, P. Kerschow, F.Yunge, E.Novenko (secretary).
The main goal of this meeting was to determine general strategy of the Commission activities.
2006. International Conference “Man and Environment in Pleistocene and Holocene: Evolution of Waterways and early Settlement of Northern Europe”
St. Petersburg, April 14-16, 2006
Organizers: Environment Еevolution Commission IGU
Institute for History of Material Culture Russian academy of Science (St. Petersburg).
The conference included 20 presentations in 3 sessions; these were both interesting and informative. The papers included general topics related to initial human settlement and changes in prehistoric economies in northern Eurasia during Late Pleistocene and Holocene, as well as concrete case studies, focused on relationship between human settlement and changes in the environment. Interestingly new evidence became available that agriculture appeared in the forest boreal zone much earlier than had been previously supposed.
2007. International Conference “Way to the North, initial accupation of Arctic and Subarctic”. Moscow, Institute of Geography RAS, December, 3-5, 2007.
This conference include both results of Commission activity and materials of scientific projects of Russian academician Institutes in a frame of International Polar Year. About 50 participants from Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and USA, the specialist in palaegeography, archeology of stone age, ethnology and genetic, took part in the conference. 42 presentation were performed.
The presentations deal with the problems of initial occupation of high latitudes and human adaptation for instable climatic conditions. The ancient men reached the further northern areas of Arctic during environment states were extremely severe. The analyses of human adaptation have been given by regional point of view. The data on northern European Russia, Siberia, North-East of Asia, Alaska and Greenland were presented. The comprehensive discussion was focused on problems of initial settlements in each region. The results of conference will be summarized as atlas-monograph, with preparation is expected at the end of 2009.
1. Workshop of Commission, July 2008 (5 days). The topic “Man and environment in boreal forest zone: past, present and future”. The workshop will be held in the Central Forest State Biosphere Reserve (Valdai upland, Tver’ region, Russia) and includes 1 day of presentation and 4 days field excursion and discussions in the undisturbed forest landscape.
2. International Conference “The Formation of Europe: Prehistoric Population Dynamics and the Roots of Socio-Cultural Diversity”, St Petersburg (Russia), 5-9 April, 2008. The conference will be organized together with European Commission’s FP6 and Institute for History of Material Culture Russian academy of Science (St. Petersburg). The Conference combines the efforts of seven groups of researchers across Europe in their studies of the Neolithic, including the transition mechanism, radiocarbon dating of the process and its interpretation, and mathematical modelling.
3. The special session in a frame of the IGU Congress in Tunisia. The Commission intends to organize a final presentation of the Commission activity during 2004-2007. The title: Environment Evolution and Human Activity in Holocene: Geographical Pattern. The topic of the session concerns the studies of the evolution of landscapes and human activity in the Pleistocene and the Holocene and this session will develop the general line of Commission investigation.
3. Networking
The Commission work in tight collaboration with Commission of glaciology IGU with based on Institute of Geography RAS.
4. Publications
The special issue of the journal Quaternary International “Man and Environment in Pleistocene and Holocene: Evolution of Waterways and early Settlement of Northern Europe” is devoted for
the materials of the Conference in St.Petersburg. Prof. Pavel Dolukhanov (Newcastle University) who was co-chair of this conference. 14 papers have been selected which could present interest for QI. This volume is in press now.
The information of the commission activity is presented on web-site:
http://igu.org.ru/en/environment_evolution_commission.html
6. Continuation
A. The new name of the commission, if it is to be changed.
The Environment Evolution Commission
B. A concise (100-200 words) statement of the commission’s mission.
An evolution analysis of terrestrial environments is necessary for understanding contemporary state of this system, estimating its stability and variability under conditions of a complicated interaction between natural trends of environmental evolution and an anthropogenic impact. Thus, a natural trend towards cooling, identified from paleogeographic data, is superimposed upon the process of the man-induces warming. Such a combination of governing factors influencing the landscape-climatic system in opposite directions brings about its diminishing stability.
An evolutionary analysis, in its turn, clearly shows that characteristics times of various landscape components (e.g., relief, vegetation, soil cover, etc.) should be taken into consideration, especially when analysing highly unstable geosystems. Such a “chronospectral” analysis of geosystems is of special importance under conditions of the unprecedented speed of the global warming.
Finally, it is necessary to take into consideration a further development of the palaeoanalogue method applied to evaluation of the upcoming environmental changes due to the man-induced global warming.
The above-mentioned interrelated problems may be considered as the basis of the scientific and coordinating activities of the Commission.
C. A list of the individuals who will comprise the new commission’s steering committee. Provide complete contact information for all proposed steering committee members.
Chairman Professor Andrei Velichko, Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Science. 29 Staromonetny lane, Moscow 119017, Russia.
Phone +7(495) 238 02 98 Fax: +7(495) 959 00 33
e-mail:
Secretary Dr. Elena Novenko e-mail:
Dr. T. Boettger. (Germany). Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Department of Isotope Hydrology, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, D-06120 Halle.
Dr. W. Bleuton (Netherlands) Utrecht University, Postbus 80125, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands, phone\fax +31 30 253 33 88
e-mail:
Dr. N Catto (Kanada)
Editor, Quaternary International, Department of Geography, Memorial University, St. John's NL, A1B 3X9, Canada, phone:1-709-737-8413, fax 1-709-737-3119
e-mail:
Dr. G. MacDonald (USA) University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles 90095, 405 Hilgard Avenue, phone: 310-825-4321
e-mail:
Dr. P Kershow (Australia) Monash University;School of Geography and Environmental Science, Wellington Rd;;Clayton Campus;Vic; 3800;Australia,
e-mail:, phone: +61 3 99052927, fax: +61 3 99052948
Dr. Ch. Turner (Great Britain)
Quaternary Environments Group, Dept. of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK
E-mail:
Dr. M. Stancikait (Lithuania), Institute of Geology and Geography, T. Sevcenkos 13, LT 03223, Vilnius, Lithuania, E-mail: ];
Dr. V. Zernitskaya (Belarus) Institute of Geochemistry and Geophysics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Kuprevich street 7, 220141 Minsk, Belarus; 375-017-2635398; e-mail:
Dr. L. Bezusko (Ukraine) National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", 2 H.Skovorody Street, Kyiv (Kiev), 04070 Ukraine
D. The work plan envisaged for the new commission, including a description of the results to be achieved during the 2008-2012 period
The mail activity of Commission will be realized as scientific research of Individual regional Work Groups in a frame of the general strategy of investigations. The Commission will organize the annual meetings to discuss and summarize the results.
The general strategy of the Commission activities is follow.
1. To concentrate the efforts on the Holocene (the last 10-12 kyr). The investigation of landscape dynamics through this time interval allow us to assess more confidently the position of modern environments in the general evolutionary process. The principal lines of research are: Landscape dynamics; Natural Processes; and Human impact.
2. The investigation will be continued on the key-regions both in South and North hemispheres. The key regions have been chosen according to the following requirements: availability of detailed paleobotanical information (pollen, macrofossil, diatoms, etc); geomorphological data, paleolimnic and paleohydrological materials, dendrochronological records, radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data and the evidence about beginning of human activities. On the base of this records the paleoclimatic reconstructions and paleoenvironmental maps for different time-slices have been compiled.
3. A special attention will be paid to last 1000 years, including the Little Glacial Age, Medieval optimum and transitional period to the present days.
Every WG is creating a data-base with most complete Holocene section of the key-region. The original data may include pollen diagram and other paleobatanical data, paleohydrological data, radiocarbon data, dendrochronological records, stable isotope data etc.
E. A description of the scholarly importance of the anticipated results of the commission’s work.
The Commission activities would presumably make a considerable contribution to the following lines of research:
1. In the physical-geographic research, it would help to introduce evolutionary approach to the assessment of modern state of geosystems, and therefore would help to better understand mechanism of their evolution;
2. To acquire knowledge on history of evolution and on inherited characteristics of individual components of landscapes (such as vegetation, soils, permafrost, etc.), thus contributing to progress in particular branches of geography;
3. Differential analysis of environmental component response to global and regional climatic changes, taking into consideration data on characteristic times of landscape reorganization (inferred from paleoreconstructions);
4. Investigations of geosystem stability limits at different levels of global climatic changes;
5. A wide use of paleoanalogues would contribute considerably to development of prognostic scenarios of geosystem states.