Quaternary Science (By S.C. Porter)

The Quaternary Period spans approximately the last two million years of the Earth's history, an interval dominated by frequent changes in global climate that led to a succession of glacial and interglacial ages. Quaternary scientists study the complex environmental changes of the glacial ages and interpret them using analogies to present-day processes and environments. A major goal of these investigations is to document the pattern and timing of climatic changes in order to understand the causes of changing climate on various time scales. Such investigations are of prime importance: the Earth, influenced by human activities, is entering a time of unusually warm climate in which significant and potentially rapid environmental changes could pose major challenges for human habitability.

Because the study of environmental change is a strongly interdisciplinary one, Quaternary research involves a broad range of specialists in such fields as anthropology, climatology, geochronology, geography, geology, glaciology, isotope geochemistry, palaeocean-ography, palaeoecology, palaeontology, palynology, and soil science. Working collaboratively, Quaternary scientists bring their training and experience to bear in interpreting the changing world of the glacial ages, and their impact on our planet's surface environments, as well as their possible role in the human evolution. Quaternary palaeoclimatic investigations play a key role in helping evaluate the possible future course of climate change on our planet.

International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA)

INQUA, the International Union for Quaternary Re-search, was founded in 1928 by a group of scientists seeking to improve understanding of environmental change during the glacial ages through interdisciplinary research. Today, more than 35 member countries, spread throughout the world, contribute to IN-QUA's vitality.

INQUA's basic goal -- promoting improved commu-nication and international collaboration in basic and applied aspects of Quaternary research -- is achieved mainly through the activities of its commissions and committees:

Commissions (2003-2007)

• Coastal and marine processes
• Palaeoclimate
• Palaeoecology and Human Evolution
• Stratigraphy and Geochronology
• Terrestrial Processes

Inter-commission activities are encouraged, as are research projects in regions where the Quaternary record is poorly known. The bulk of commission and committee work is carried on through scientific research projects in which international teams of spe-cialists attack a wide array of problems.

Some examples of current INQUA commission/committee projects

• Glacial-interglacial carbon budget of the continental biosphere
• Late Pleistocene tephra eruptions and Younger Dryas climate
• Ice-sheet dynamics at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea during the last glaciation
• Paleofloods as a means of assessing hydrologic and climatic extremes in Earth history
• Vegetation successions at the scale of Milankovich cycles between 2.6 and 0.9 million years ago
• Quaternary correlations between eastern, central, and western Europe using small fossil mammals
• Response of soil formation to brief warm episodes of Asian summer monsoon climate
• Inventory of the human occupation of Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic period

INQUA's financial support for Commission/Committee activities is used to help generate additional support from national and international funding agencies, to organize international work-shops and conferences, and to aid the participation of young scientists, especially those from developing countries. In addition to its own research activities, INQUA actively collaborates with other organizations and programs, including the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the Past Global Changes (PAGES) program of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), and the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP).

INQUA Congresses

INQUA's quadrennial international congresses, which bring together as many as 1000 scientists from around the world, provide a focus for its many activities. Past congresses have been held in Copenhagen (1928), Leningrad (1932), Vienna (1936), Rome (1953), Madrid (1957), Warsaw (1961), Boulder (1965), Paris (1969), Christchurch (1973), Birmingham (1977), Moscow (1982), Ottawa (1987), Beijing (1991), Berlin (1995) and Durban (1999). At each congress, commissions, committees, and working groups organize symposia that review research results from the previous inter-congress period, and plan activities for the next one.

The XVI INQUA Congress was held in Reno, Nevada, USA in July 2003, and its theme was "Frontiers in Quaternary Sciences."