Soil Micromorphology as a Technique for Reconstructing Palaeoenvironmental Change

This paper describes how soil micromorphology (microscopic study of soil thin-sections) may be used to help reconstruct palaeoenvironmental change. Emphasis is on the details and approach of the technique, rather than the specific findings of particular studies within confined environments. Thus, most attention is paid to field sampling, thin-section manufacture, the approach to description and interpretation of thin sections, the presentation and interpretation of data from sequences of thin sections. Examples from Quaternary palaeosol sequences in Europe and China are used to demonstrate general principles which could be applied to a wide range of environments including those of the arid and semi-arid zones. The paper concludes with a summary of the types of micromorphological features recorded in semi-arid and arid soils, and illustrates how their presence and distribution have been used to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental change in these drier regions of the world.