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Sea state knowledge has a key role in evaluation of coastal erosion, the assessment of vulnerability and potential in coastal zone utilization, and development of numerical models to predict its evolution. X-band radar measurements were conducted to observe the spatial and temporal variation of the sea-state parameters along a 3 km long sandy-gravelly pocket beaches forming a littoral cell on Bagnara Calabra. We produced a sequence of 1000 images of the sea state extending offshore up to 1 mile. The survey has allowed monitoring the coastline, the directional wave spectra, the sea surface current fields, and the significant wave heights and detecting strong rip currents which cause scours around the open inlets and affect the stability of the submerged reef-type breakwaters. The possibility to validate the data acquired with other datasets (e.g., LaMMA Consortium) demonstrates the potential of the X-band radar technology as a monitoring tool to advance the understanding of the linkages between sea conditions, nearshore sediment dynamics, and coastal change. This work proves the possibility to obtain relevant information (e.g., wave number, period, and direction) for evaluation of local erosion phenomena and of morphological changes in the nearshore and surf zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-resolution integrated study has been performed in a super-expanded marine record (sedimentation rate spanning from 11 cm/100 years to 20 cm/100 years) from the continental shelf area of the southeastern Tyrrhenian Sea. Planktonic foraminiferal distribution illustrates 6 major environmental changes during the past 2000 years: (i) the Roman Period-Dark Age transition (from herbivorous-opportunistic to carnivorous species); (ii) the Dark Age-MCA transition (from carnivorous to herbivorous-opportunistic species); (iii) the Medieval Classic Anomaly-Little Ice Age transition (a further and definitive change from carnivorous to herbivorous-opportunistic species); (iv) the period during the Maunder event between approximately 1720 AD and 1740 AD (turnover from the carnivorous planktonic foraminifer Globigerinodes ruber to the herbivorous-opportunistic planktonic foraminifer Turborotalita quinqueloba); (v) the Industrial Period (dominance of herbivorous-opportunistic planktonic foraminifera); and (vi) the Modern Warm Period at approximately 1940 AD (the last turnover in favor of herbivorous-opportunistic planktonic foraminifers, associated with an increase in benthic foraminifera). Our studies lead us to link this latter feature to an anthropogenic impact associated with the damming of Sele River (Salerno Gulf) at 1934 AD, which induced a change in the sediment input with a strong decrease in coarse-grained fraction and a probable alteration in nutrient supply. The δ18O G. ruber record of the past 2000 years shows the alternation of warm/wet and cold/dry events related to the Roman Period, the Dark Age, the Medieval Classic Anomaly, the Little Ice Age, the Industrial Period and the Modern Warm Period. The 5 evident δ18O G. ruber oscillations (between approximately 1325 AD and 1940 AD) coincide with the 5 minima in the solar activity record (Wolf, Spörer, Maunder, Dalton and Damon events). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]