Talk:Paleosol

Article Review
I was surprised to find out how short this article is on paleosol and how little it included about being used as a proxy for paleoclimate. It does not describe the proxy's data analyses, assumptions, or strengths and weaknesses. It really doens't go into detail at all about how paleosols are used as a proxy. It only uses one source, so it definitely could use a lot more. Below are just two additional papers that could be useful:

Buggle, Björn, et al. "An evaluation of geochemical weathering indices in loess–paleosol studies." Quaternary International 240.1 (2011): 12-21.

Driese, Steven G., et al. "Distinguishing climate in the soil record using chemical trends in a Vertisol climosequence from the Texas Coast Prairie, and application to interpreting Paleozoic paleosols in the Appalachian Basin, USA." Journal of Sedimentary Research 75.3 (2005): 339-349.

I would recommend a more thorough review of the literature out there and possibly even including a text book on paleosols or paleoclimate proxies. The article could definitely use more sources and maybe even some kind of graphic such as a chart or table to help illustrate how we can use paleosol to interpret past climates.

Blenz1126 (talk) 15:38, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Clarity needed
"...it is the typical and accepted practice to use the term "paleosol" to designate such "fossil" soils found buried within either sedimentary or volcanic deposits exposed in all continents..."

How can the paleosol be both buried and exposed? Perhaps the strata showing on a cliff face, for instance? If that is the intended meaning, how does the first geosciences definition differ from the second? They seem to be the same definition reworded. Perhaps someone could clarify this section for those of us who have not extensively studied the subject. Pollifax (talk) 11:31, 28 July 2013 (UTC)

I agree that the two definitions given in the introduction do not appear to be substantially different and I have not come across multiple meanings of "paleosol" in geology or soil science. I suggest that a single definition be used unless someone can offer a better distinction or provide an example of the different usages on the talk page (Divemast (talk) 12:03, 17 October 2016 (UTC)).

Critique
Although paleosols seem to be a well-used device in determining past climates, the author of this article only has two sentences regarding this use of paleosols. It lists nothing about strengths and weaknesses, nor does the article provide examples of data. Although the two sentences point out that paleosols can provide information on mean temperatures, they do not provide information as to how this can happen.

Furthermore, there is only one source used that is from the last ten years (source 5), and even then, it is only used once. To make this article more credible, the author could have used sources such as "A DATA-DRIVEN SPLINE MODEL DESIGNED TO PREDICT PALEOCLIMATE USING PALEOSOL GEOCHEMISTRY" or "A new paleothermometer for forest paleosols and its implications for Cenozoic climate" to provide more information on how paleosols can be used to find information about past climates.

In general, this article could use a lot more information on the link between paleosols and climate. By incorporating more references like the ones above or finding other relevant, up-to-date, peer reviewed articles, this Wikipedia article could be more informative. Adding some actual data about paleosols and it's relationship on past climate could also be beneficial, as well as discussing the pros and cons to using this climate proxy. Kbrown218 (talk) 21:48, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Critique
The Paleosol article addresses data analyses by commenting on how palesols relate to past climates. It also touches on how they can help us draw conclusions about ecosystems and different plants. Analyzing this data (plant materials in soil and exposure of soil to different climates) can be used to determine what past climates and ecosystems were like. This articles addresses assumptions by having a separate sections for properties of soil in different regions and what said properties tell us. Unfortunately, this article does not examine strengths and weaknesses of the paleosols. Some of the peer-reviewed articles have information that dates back as far as 25 years ago. In this case, that isn’t very current, but there is one article from 2016. In order to ensure that this article has up-to-date information, we need to find different sources that have more current information (Paleoclimatology: Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary – 2015 and Paleoethnobotany on the Northern Plains: The Tuscany Archaeological Site – 2014). Adding more current references and stating strengths and weakness of paleosols would be vital to improving this article. Mhwayne14 (talk) 20:46, 1 March 2017 (UTC)Mhwayne14

Article Critique
I believe the introductory paragraphs on the subject are pretty straight-forward and easy to read, overall, which is good for the "average" reader (aka most Wikipedia users). The first paragraph states that two definitions are given though, and although the definitions are understandable, they do not appear to have any distinct differences. That might want to be addressed, but from all the other web sources I looked up, the definitions given here seem to be consistent with the others.

I must note that this article seems to be fairly short, and because of the lack of length, there are only 8 references, whereas most Wikipedia articles that I encounter seem to have many more references. Because of the small number of references, this article may not be too reliable since all the information is provided by only a few sources; more sources would create more diversity and points-of-view in the article, as well as provide data from around the world. Also, the references that are used seem to be fairly out of date, as only 3 of them are post-2000, and only 1 post-2010 (2016). I've found a couple articles that would potentially provide some newer viewpoints and data:

Buggle, B., Hambach, U., Zoller, L., Buggle, B., Muller, K., Markovic, S. B., & Glaser, B. (January 01, 2014). Iron mineralogical proxies and quaternary climate change in SE-european loess-paleosol sequences. Catena, 117, 4-22.

Krauß, L., Zens, J., Zeeden, C., Schulte, P., Eckmeier, E., & Lehmkuhl, F. (November 01, 2016). A Multi-Proxy Analysis of two Loess-Paleosol Sequences in the Northern Harz Foreland, Germany. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 461, 401-417.

Both of these articles are recent articles (2014 and 2016) that go in-depth as to how using paleosol as a proxy was used to gather real data regarding climate change, and statistics and data are areas that I believe the article is lacking. As I said before, I think this article definitely addresses what paleosol is (although it could go more in depth), but it is not backed up by much real life data or many recent, reliable sources. JSteponick11 (talk) 00:03, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Article Critique
This article does an alright job of explaining its use as a proxy in understanding past climate. There could be some more information in the article about how researchers extract the data about the past plant layers from the paleosol and how they analyze it, I would like to know more about it just from the article. The article does not specifically state the weaknesses of the proxy, but it does address a strength and weaknesses could be inferred from the article. There is a peer-reviewed journal titled

rochnow, S. J., Nordt, L. C., Atchley, S. C., & Hudec, M. R. (2006). Multi-proxy paleosol evidence for middle and late Triassic climate trends in eastern Utah. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 232(1), 53-72. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.08.011

that could add relevant information to the article. This journal specifically talks about multi-proxy evidence dealing with paleosols and uses a specific area of study, eastern Utah. Another relevant peer-reviewed journal is

Nettleton, W. D., Olson, C. G., & Wysocki, D. A. (2000). Paleosol classification: Problems and solutions. Catena, 41(1), 61-92. doi:10.1016/S0341-8162(00)00109-0

that talks specifically about the different classifications of paleosols and problems related to this. Both of these journals could be useful for this article. Besides adding more sources, another suggestion for this article I have is to include charts graphs or maps relating to paleosols. A map of showing Australia and where paleosols have been researched or a chart showing what they tell us about interior Australian soil. Talking about continental drift could also help explain to the uninformed reader why the climates change and how deserts once had plants and fertile soil.Pasi.nick (talk) 03:47, 3 March 2017 (UTC)