INQUA 2013 p.1
International Union for Quaternary Research
http://www.inqua.org
Summary of activity for 2014
OVERALL OBJECTIVES
The International Union for Quaternary Science (INQUA) was established in 1928 and exists to encourage
and facilitate the research of Quaternary scientists in all disciplines. To this end:

Five Commissions (Coastal & Marine Processes; Humans & the Biosphere; Palaeoclimates; Stratigraphy &
Chronology; Terrestrial Processes, Deposits & History) provide leadership in different spheres of
research, and are responsible for ensuring that INQUA scientists remain at the forefront of their fields.

INQUA is committed to promoting collaborations among scientists around the world. It places special
emphasis on assisting early career and developing country researchers to become involved in
international projects.

The Executive awards grants for running meetings to assist in planning such projects.

INQUA continues to encourage Quaternary associations around the world to join its more than 50
national and regional Members in an on-going bid to be all-inclusive.
ORGANIZATION

Members (national/geographic members)

International Council (comprising one delegate from each Member, meets at the Congress every four
years)

General Assembly (meets at the Congress every four years)

Executive Committee (meets annually)
President:
Dr Margaret Avery
Secretary-General:
Dr Julius Lejju
Treasurer:
Dr Marie-France Loutre
Vice-Presidents:
Dr Fabrizio Antonioli
INQUA 2013 p.2
Dr Franck Audemard
Professor John Lowe
Professor Koji Okumura
Past-President:

Professor Allan Chivas
Commissions (Presidents meet annually with the Executive)
Coastal and Marine Processes (CMP)
Roland Gehrels roland.gehrels@york.ac.uk
Humans and the Biosphere (HABCOM)
Nicki Whitehouse n.whitehouse@qub.ac.uk
Palaeoclimate (PALCOMM)
Sandy Harrison s.p.harrison@reading.ac.uk
Stratigraphy and Chronology (SACCOM)
Phil Gibbard phil gibbard plg1@cam.ac.uk
Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History (TERPRO)
Alessandro Michetti
alessandro.michetti@uninsubria.it
FINANCES
Summary Treasurer’s Report 31st December 2013
EXPENDITURE
INCOME
EUR
EUR
Opening balance 1 Jan 2014
314646.93
Membership fees 2014
109477.52
Membership fees 2013
11607.81
Quaternary International (Elsevier)
87785.71
Meeting ExCom – Caracas 2014
25862.09
Meeting ExCom – Cape Town 2015
11550.24
Attendance at other meetings
3081.43
INQUA membership of ICSU
3525.69
Project funding
108544.49
Bank costs / interest
1380.06
Others
3728.96
Balance at 31st Dec 2014
1238.51
367083.51
INQUA 2013 p.3
PROJECTS FUNDED FOR 2013
Project
No.
Leader(s)
Title
1203
Rovere et al
MEDFLOOD: MEDiterranean sea level change and projection for
future FLOODing
1301F
Long et al.
PALSEA2 (PALeo-constraints on SEA-level rise2)
1401F
Barrie et al
SHELVES
1205
Chase & Mackay
Context and controls on modern human behaviour in southern Africa:
human-environment interactions in the late Pleistocene
1402
Mwebi & Brugal
African Large Carnivores: impacts on ecosystems and humans
interactions
1403
Rodríguez et al.
Modelling human settlement, fauna and flora dynamics in Europe
during the Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (1.2 to 0.4 Ma).
1404
Robinson & Riede
Cultural and palaeoenvironmental changes in Late Glacial to Middle
Holocene Europe: gradual or sudden?
1405
Ono et al.
Obsidian exploitation and provenance studies in Eurasian prehistory:
a comparative perspective in diverse palaeoenvironment.
1406
Akhilesh et al.
Palaeoanthropological Perspectives on Past Vegetation Using
Phytoliths at Prehistoric Sites in South India and Sri Lanka.
1407S
Dembele et al.
Capacity building for young Quaternary scientists of West Africa in
Quaternary fluvial sediment analysis and paleo-environmental
changes (with TERPRO)
1208F
Sanchez Goñi
Abrupt Climate changes and Environmental Responses (ACER)
1209
Urrego
LA ACER; abrupt changes in LGM and deglacial
1210F
Blockley
CELL-50k (Calibrating Environmental Leads and Lags over the last 50
kyr) – an IFG and project proposal by the INTIMATE group
1211
Abe-Ouchi
Palaeo-Carbon Cycle (pCC)
1212
Maher
DIRTMAP3: Dust And Climate Working Group
1302
Lorrey & Phipps
SHAPE: Southern Hemisphere Assessment of PalaeoEnvironments
1303
Yu et al.
Holocene Global Peatland Carbon Dynamics: Community-Wide Data
Synthesis and Modeling Initiatives
1408F
Skinner et al
IPODS IFG. Investigating Past Ocean Dynamics
CMP
HABCOM
PALCOMM
SACCOM
INQUA 2013 p.4
Project
No.
Leader(s)
Title
1307S
Lowe
INTREPID Tephra – II: Enhancing tephrochronology as a global
research tool through improved fingerprinting and correlation
techniques and uncertainty modelling (phase II)
1410F
Westerhoff & Feibig
SEQS (Section on European Quaternary Stratigraphy) Framing
European Quaternary Stratigraphy
1411
Marjanac et al.
Glacial History of Dinaric Alps
1216
Sauer et al.
RAISIN: Rates of soil forming processes obtained from soils and
paleosols in well-defined settings
1217
Amit et al.
AEOMED: Loess occurrences and dust additions to current surface
soils and paleosols in Mediterranean climate
1218
Monegato et al.
CECLAP: Circumalpine events and correlations in the Late Pleistocene
1220
Monegato
Circumalpine events and correlations in the Late Pleistocene
(CECLAP)
1229
Silva et al.
EEE Metrics: parametrization of earthquake environmentall effects
1309F
Haldorsen et al.
G@GPS: Groundwater and Global Palaeoclimate Signals
1311
Kröhling
SAQint3- Interactions between climatic forcing, tectonics and
volcanism during the Late Quaternary: a multidisciplinary approach
applied on key regions of South America
1412R
Johansson et al.
Peribaltic Group
TERPRO
SKILLS ENHANCEMENT
1409S
Chase & Quick
AfQUA. The African Quaternary: environments, ecology and humans
SUMMARY OF RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

As a Full Scientific Union Member of ICSU, INQUA is making an increasing contribution to this body
through its membership of the GeoUnions sub-group. It is making plans to become involved in the ICSU
Future Earth programme, to which it can make important contributions.

The five INQUA Commissions (http://www.inqua.org/aboutCommissions.html) are extremely active,
setting research priorities, and encouraging and overseeing the submission of applications for INQUA
funding. For more information contact the INQUA Commission Presidents directly or the Secretary
General, Dr Julius Lejju lejju2002@yahoo.co.uk.
INQUA 2013 p.5

There are now four categories of grants. The original category helps Project leaders to bring together
members of their group to further the Project. The second category helps support the work of
International Focus Groups, which cover a broader area of science than do individual Projects. Skills
Enhancement grants reflect the strong commitment by INQUA to providing support to Early Career and
Developing Country Researchers. Finally, Recognised Projects are those that request recognition by
INQUA but no funding.

The website (http://www.inqua.org/) is regularly updated. It contains information on all aspects of the
Union, including the INQUA brochure, names of all office bearers and National Members as well as
INQUA’s newsletter (Quaternary Perspectives) and links to the journal (Quaternary International),
Commission activities and INQUA projects. The INQUA website also includes information about INQUA
meetings and aims to be a useful tool for all scientists that work within the different INQUA bodies. The
Commissions have separate Home Pages, which are linked to the central INQUA Home Page.

The Early Career Researchers Committee (http://www.inqua.org/ecr.html ) has the aim of representing
the ECR community and promoting the joint interests of this community and of INQUA. The Committee
comprises members from each Commission and was chaired by Jenn Marlon until mid-year when Sallie
Burrough took over. The ECRC has been very active in developing contact with young researchers and
proved its importance in forming a link between ECRs and the Executive.

A regular briefing is sent to the National and Regional delegates of the International Council to keep
them updated on business and proposals emanating from the work of the INQUA Executive Committee.
These newly introduced briefings are intended to ensure that delegates are familiar with topics to be
discussed at meetings of the International Council and to provide a conduit for delegates to raise
important matters with the INQUA Executive Committee.

Planning for the next Congress, to be held in Nagoya in July 2015, continued throughout the year. As has
been the case with the last four Congresses, the INQUA Executive is working with the Local Organising
Committee to ensure that both scientific and procedural aspects are conducted to the highest
standards.
PUBLICATIONS
Quaternary International (QI)
Editor in Chief: Norm Catto. Regional Editor (Europe): Thijs van Kolfschoten
Publication of Quaternary International (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/quaternary-international/), in
close cooperation with Elsevier Publishers, is an important INQUA service to the Quaternary research
INQUA 2013 p.6
community and in that light can be regarded as one of the major activities of INQUA. The intention since the
founding of QI in 1987 has been to produce a diversity of volumes, with emphasis on providing the
opportunity to allow international Quaternarists to have their work available to the entire Quaternary
community. The journal now publishes 36 volumes per year, and 1007 papers were submitted in 2013
(including editorials, discussion/reply pieces, short notes, etc.). The current impact factor (IF) is 2,128 (5year, 2.446). QI has seen an increase in impact factor in each of the past 5 years.
Quaternary Perspectives (QP)
Editor: Koji Okumura. Associate Editors: Alessio Rovere (to mid-year), Lyudmila (Lucy) Shumilovskikh (from
mid-year) and Lorna Linch.
INQUA’s
popular
newsletter
is
published
http://www.inqua.org/publicationsQuatPersp.html.
D. Margaret Avery
President (July 2011-July 2015) mavery@iziko.org.za
23rd January 2015
twice
a
year
online
and
is
available
at