The 47th annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop soon will be held in Lethbridge at the new Coast Hotel from February 16 through 18, 2010. Please join us for an engaging program, including our Plenary Session focussed on the theme of 'Soils and the Alberta Land-Use Framework'. Click here to download the entire preliminary program. If you have not already registered, you may register at the door (refer to the form at left for registration options). (2010.02.09)

The registration form for the upcoming Alberta Soils Workshop is now available. Please click here to download it. (2010.01.08)

Registration is now opend for the 2010 Alberta Soil Science Workshop. This year's theme is "Soils and the Alberta Land Use Framework". We have so far confirmed the following plenary speakers: -Morris Sieferling, Assistant Deputy Minister, Sustainable Resource Development -Dr. Jason Cathcart, Land Use Policy, Alberta Agriculture -Dr. Ron McCormick, Senior Risk Assessor -Justin Straker, Sustainable Ecosystem Working Group, Cumulative Effects Management Association Thanks to those who submitted voluntary papers. Our volunteer sessions are full. As usual, we will be having technical sessions on Soil Fertility and Soil Conservation and Land Reclamation. This year, we will have a special technical session on GHG emissions from Rangelands and Perrenial Croplands. Certified Crop Advisor credits in Soil/Water can be earned for attending the conference. Hope to see you all there. (2009.12.23)

The 47th Annual Soil Science Workshop will be held February 16th - 18th, 2010 at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Lethbridge, Alberta. This year's theme is 'Soils and the Alberta Land Use Framework'. Please click here for more details. If you wish to give an oral or poster presentation please submit a title and abstract by Friday December 11, 2009 to : miles.dyck@ualberta.ca. If you are a graduate student, please indicate in your e-mail. Check this site for further details as the program develops. (2009.10.30)

Another successful Workshop was held in February, 2009 at Edmonton. In the opening plenary session four excellent speakers delivered thought-provoking presentations on the theme of 'An Earth Sciences Perspective of Soils". The Workshop was attended by 124 participants from private industry, government and academia, and was supported by the generosity of 15 sponsors. Please click here to see the program and booklet of abstracts. A 2009 Proceedings Volume is in preparation; 2007 and 2008 Volumes are available at the left. (2009.04.23)

For Certified Crop Advisors, the Alberta Soil Science Workshop has 17.5 CEUs available in Soil and Water Management and Nutrient Management. Register today! (2009.02.07)

If your interested in attending or presenting a poster at the 46th Annual ASSW Workshop - there is still time! Early bird registration has been extended until February 6th! Hotel reservation deadline at the Mayfield Hotel has also been extended until February 6th. (2009.01.30)

The abstract submission deadline for the 46th Annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop has been extended to January 17th, 2009. (2008.12.14)

The 46th Annual Soil Science Workshop will be held February 17th - 19th, 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta. Stay tuned for the hotel location! This years theme is 'An Earth Sciences Perspective of Soil'. If you wish to give an oral or poster presentation please submit an abstract (200 word maximum, electronic format) by Friday December 12, 2008 to : scott.chang@ualberta.ca. Check this site for further details as the program develops. (2008.10.20)

Click here to download a printable version of the itinerary for the 2008 Alberta Soils Tour (July 22 & 23). The tour is an excellent opportunity to meet other soils people, and to learn more about soils and land use in west central Alberta. The registration form was sent previously and also is available from the 'news section' at www.soilsworkshop.ab.ca. Please register by July 4, 2008, and act soon to reserve your room for the overnight stay in Rocky Mountain House (by June 22 at the Best Western and by July 8 at the Super 8). Further details are available by sending an email to Jason.Cathcart@gov.ab.ca. (2008.06.22)

The final announcement and registration form for the 2008 Alberta Soils Tour (July 22 & 23) is now available. You are encouraged to register by 4-July-2008. Please click here to download the registration form. (2008.05.28)

The 2008 workshop attracted over 130 registrants for a thought-provoking plenary session on the theme "Ecological footprint of human activities on Alberta's soils". Please click here for the Workshop Program, including 36 oral presentations and 10 poster presentations. (2008.03.12)

The 2008 Workshop soon will be upon us. For your interest, here are some references to publications by two of our keynote speakers:

Rees, W.E. 2006. Ecological footprints and bio-capacity: essential elements in sustainability assessment. Pages 143-158, Chapter 9. In: Jo Dewulf and Herman Van Langenhove (eds.). Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester UK.

Rees, W.E. 2004. The Eco-Footprint of Agriculture: A Far-from-(Thermodynamic)-Equilibrium Interpretation. Pages 87-110. In: Allan Eaglesham, Alan Wildeman, and Ralph W.F. Hardy (eds.). Agricultural Biotechnology: Finding Common International Goals National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) Report 16. NABC, Ithaca, New York.

Wall, D.H. 2007. Global change tipping points: above- and below-ground biotic interactions in a low diversity ecosystem. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Series B 362:2291–230.

Wall, D.H.; V. Behan-Pelletier, A.P. Covich and P. Snelgrove. 2007. Hidden assets: Biodiversity below-surface. UNESCO-SCOPE Policy Briefs No. 5. UNESCO-SCOPE, Paris. 6 p.
(2008.02.04)

Please plan to attend the 2008 workshop, and send us the registration form (obtainable under the registration tab to the left). If you register before January 31, 2008, the fee is only $180, plus $25 for the banquet on the evening of Wednesday February 20, 2008. (2008.01.24)

In addition to the esteemed group of plenary speakers announced previously (Bill Rees, Elwin Smith & John Nishi), we are excited to include Dr. Diana Wall, Professor of Biology and Director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. As a soil ecologist and environmental scientist, Diana is actively engaged in research exploring how microbial and invertebrate diversity contributes to healthy, productive soils and thus to society, and the consequences of human activities on soil globally. Among many significant accomplishments, she edited the book "Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Soils and Sediments” (Island Press, 2004), and was president of the Ecological Society of America (1999-2000). (2008.01.24)

The 45th Annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop will be held February 19-21, 2008 at the Lethbridge Lodge Hotel & Conference Centre. The theme for this year's workshop is “Ecological footprint of human activities on Alberta’s soils”. If you wish to give an oral or poster presentation at the Workshop, please submit an abstract (200 words maximum, electronic format) by Friday, December 14, 2007 to: ellert@agr.gc.ca Check this site for further details as the program is developed and finalized. (2007.10.31)

The 2007 Annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop was held from February 20 to 22, 2007, in Calgary. The conference plenary theme was "Wildland Soils: Their Ecology and Management".

Guidelines for Submissions to the Proceedings Volume for the 2007 Alberta Soil Science Workshop:

All participants (which includes plenary session papers, invited technical session papers, volunteer papers and posters) at the workshop have the opportunity to publish their presentation in the proceedings volume. The deadline for receipt of the final manuscript or summary is May 14, 2007.

In cases where the author(s) choose to not submit a manuscript or summary, or the author(s) are unable to meet the submission deadline, the abstract provided prior to the workshop will be included in the proceeding volume, or an edited version of the PowerPoint presentation that has been approved by the author(s). After the papers are compiled, the proceedings and any PowerPoint presentations will be put on the ASSW web site in PDF format.

Plenary session manuscripts should not exceed 20 pages (single-spaced) and technical session papers, volunteer papers and posters should not exceed six pages including tables and figures. Use familiar terms and expressions and define unfamiliar terms and expressions if their use is necessary. Use metric units of measure; English equivalents or SI units can be given in parentheses. Format for Submissions The manuscript or summary should be submitted in separate documents for text, tables and figures. The text and tables should be submitted as MSWord documents and the figures as EXCEL graphs or .jpeg files. All figures should be easy to interpret, black and white images. A separate list of figure captions should be attached. The manuscript submission should include, where appropriate, the following parts:

1. Title
2. Author names and affiliation
3. Abstract (200 words or less)
4. Introduction
5. Methods
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Conclusions
9. References (following format of the Canadian Journal of Soil Science). Unpublished material can be cited in the text e.g. (Smith, unpubl.) and should not be included in the reference list.
10. Tables
11. List of Figures
12. Figures

As a reminder the deadline for receipt of the final manuscript is May 14, 2007.

Please submit the manuscript or summary in electronic format by e-mail to: Cindy Shaw (cshaw@nrcan.gc.ca) Phone : 780-430-3821

The conference’s plenary speakers were:

• Wilderness soils: Human misconceptions of a human concept
  Dr. Rob Harrison, Professor, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington
  
  
• Sustainable forest management: Is soil information relevant?
  Dr. Jim Fyles, Professor, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University
  
  
• Sustaining Alberta Rangelands: New Tools Link Soil Landscape Information to Management Challenges
  Barry W. Adams, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and Ron McNeil, Landwise Inc.
  
  
• Can forested catchments recover following reductions in acid deposition: how reversible is cation depletion?
  Dr. Peter Dillon, Professor, Environmental and Resource Studies and Chemistry, Trent University
  
  
• The current status of the grassland resource in Inner Mongolia
  Dr. Mengli Zhao, College of Ecological and Environmental Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University
  
  

(2006.11.29)

A slide show of the 2006 Soils Tour is now available in a PDF format. You are welcome to download it. (2006.09.30)

If you would like to receive updates, news items, etc. from the Alberta Soil Science Workshop, please click on mailing list button on left-hand side, fill in your information, and then click on submit button on the bottom. You can also unsubscribe using this procedure. (2004.01.09)