Micromorphology of Soils and Paleosols of India

Prof. Pankaj Srivastava obtained M.Sc. Geology in 1986 and PhD in Earth Sciences in 1992 from University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee). The topic of his PhD dissertation was “A Holocene Soil Chrono association of the Gangetic Plains between Ramganga and Rapti rivers”. Prof. Srivastava has used micromorphology to explore soils and paleosols of the Himalayan Foreland Basin (HFB) to understand its evolutionary history. His lab on micromorphology in the University of Delhi has helped him to resolve several issues that are related to silicate weathering, pedogenesis, soil-geomorphology, polygenesis, pedogenic and non-pedogenic carbonates, diagenetic overprinting in lithified paleosols, and to provide basic principles of alluvial cyclicity in fluvial sediments. Prof. Srivastava is working on a mission to develop this technique further and disseminate the same as an important component of the academic curriculum in the country. His students are devoted to paleopedological research work covering the entire succession of the HFB from the oldest paleosols ca 31 Ma to the Holocene soils of the Ganga Basin. Prof. Srivastava has been actively collaborating with researchers from US, UK, and Germany for paleopedological studies. Dr D. K. Pal obtained his M.Sc. (Ag) degree in Agricultural Chemistry with a specialization in Soil Science in 1970 and was awarded his PhD degree in Agricultural Chemistry and continued his training as a DAAD Postdoctoral Fellow   in West Germany. The focus of his work has been major soil types of India that has expanded the basic knowledge in pedology, paleopedology, soil taxonomy, soil mineralogy, soil micromorphology and edaphology.  He has monitored several MSc and PhD students of land resource management. He has been an Invited Speaker at multiple national and international conferences and continues to serve as a Reviewer for many journals of national and international repute.  He has authoredfive books: three books published by Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland, the fourth one published by the Clay Minerals Society of India, New Delhi in 2021, and the fifth one   published by the Indian Society of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur, in 2022. He has been an Awardee of several prestigious awards   and fellowships. He served as the Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Soil Resource Studies, ICAR-NBSS&LUP, Nagpur, and as a Visiting Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

• 1. Micromorphology of Soils and Paleosols: Overview and Introduction.- 2. New Criteria to Identify Argillans as Evidence of Clay Illuviation.- 3. Modifications of Plasmic Fabric in SAT Vertisols in a Climosequence: Evidence for Holocene Climate Changes.- 4. Micromorphological Criteria to Identify Calcium Carbonates of Pedogenic (PC) and Non-Pedogenic (NPC) Origin in SAT Soils and their Relevance to Pedogenesis and Management.- 5. Micromorphology to understand Landscape Evolutions and Pedogenic Response to Neotectonics and Holocene climatic changes: A Case from Soils of the Ganga Basin.- 6. Micromorphological Approach to Identify Polygenesis in Soils.- 7. Micromorphology of the Paleosols to Reconstruct Late Quaternary Paleoclimatic Record, Alluvial Cyclicity and Stratigraphy of the Ganga Basin.- 8. Micromorphology to Distinguish Diagenetic Overprinting and Paleopedogenic Features in Lithified Paleosols of the Himalayan Foreland Basin.- 9. Micromorphology of the Calcic Soils of the Thar desert: Implication for Climate Change and Origin of Palygorskite.- 10 Summary and Concluding remarks.