1. Late Quaternary Landscape Dynamics at the La Spezia Gulf (NW Italy): A Multi-Proxy Approach Reveals Environmental Variability within a Rocky Embayment
- Author
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Andrea Cocchianella, Luca Lorenzini, Veronica Rossi, Silvia Marvelli, Simon Luca Trigona, Marco Marchesini, Alessandro Amorosi, Gianfranco Valle, Monica Bini, Rossi V., Amorosi A., Marchesini M., Marvelli S., Cocchianella A., Lorenzini L., Trigona S.L., Valle G., and Bini M.
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,lcsh:Hydraulic engineering ,Environmental change ,Pleistocene ,Geography, Planning and Development ,Fluvial ,Aquatic Science ,ostracods and foraminifers ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Biochemistry ,lcsh:Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes ,lcsh:TC1-978 ,Coastal landscape ,Late Quaternary ,Mediterranean Sea ,Ostracods and foraminifers ,Pollen ,Rocky embayment ,Glacial period ,rocky embayment ,Holocene ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Water Science and Technology ,lcsh:TD201-500 ,coastal landscape ,Oceanography ,Ostracods and foraminifer ,pollen ,Interglacial ,Quaternary ,Geology ,late Quaternary ,Marine transgression - Abstract
The Gulf of La Spezia (GLS) in Northwest Italy is a rocky embayment with low fluvial influence facing the Mediterranean Sea. Past landscape dynamics were investigated through a multi-proxy, facies-based analysis down to a core depth of 30 m. The integration of quantitative ostracod, foraminifera, and pollen analyses, supported by radiocarbon ages, proved to be a powerful tool to unravel the late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental evolution and its forcing factors. The complex interplay between relative sea-level (RSL), climatic changes, and geomorphological features of the embayment drove four main evolution phases. A barrier–lagoon system developed in response to the rising RSL of the Late Pleistocene (likely the Last Interglacial). The establishment of glacial conditions then promoted the development of an alluvial environment, with generalised erosion of the underlying succession and subsequent accumulation of fluvial strata. The Holocene transgression (dated ca. 9000 cal year BP) caused GLS inundation and the formation of a low-confined lagoon basin, which rapidly turned into a coastal bay from ca. 8000 cal year BP onwards. This latter environmental change occurred in response to the last Holocene stage of global sea-level acceleration, which submerged a morphological relief currently forming a drowned barrier-island complex in the embayment.
- Published
- 2021