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Very different soil types occur across a few tens of meters on dolostone, in a never glaciated karst landscape in the Lombard Pre-Alps (Selvino, Italy). This substrate is locally enriched in well-crystallized sand-grained quartz. The quartz content is responsible for the localized genesis of Podzols. Other soil types observed in the area include strongly rubified (Terra Rossa) horizons (paleosols), preserved in the most protected dolostone cracks. Non-rubified Luvisols and Cambisols were observed in karst dry valleys and dolines while Rendzic Leptosols/Phaeozems were common on the steepest slopes. Such a variety of soils was explained assuming different parent materials (dolostone, silica-rich dolostone, with different amounts of aeolian inputs, ascertained using textural properties, mineralogy, micromorphology, total element composition, mass balance calculations, rare earth elements, and stable elements. Many soils were highly polycyclic, with different layers associated to different parent materials and characterized by different pedogenic processes evidencing different ages. We were thus able to distinguish the horizons mainly developed from the dissolution of the dolostone from those formed in Pleistocene loess. The geochemistry of all surface soil horizons, including Podzols and Rendzic Leptosols/Phaeozems, apparently formed from pure or quartz-rich dolostone dissolution, has been influenced by recent aeolian additions (likely Saharan dust), with deeply modified effects according to different pedogenetic processes acting locally. Saharan dust, in fact, significantly increased metal and rare earth elements contents compared to the substrate, also in the youngest and least weathered soil types.

Purpose: Loess in Northern Italy has been usually considered deposited during the MIS 4-2 period, which corresponds to the last Pleistocene glacial cycle. In particular, no absolute dating evidenced loess depositions older than ca. 89 ka. We investigated two strongly rubified soil profiles in the southern margin of the Alpine range in Lombardy to prove their aeolian origin and age of formation. Methods: We analysed the granulometry of all genetic horizons of these strongly rubified soils, and a total of 8 samples were collected for luminescence dating purpose. Results: Most of the analysed soil horizons were dominated by silt and were characterized by the s-shaped granulometric curve, typical of loess materials. A particularly high clay content evidenced a strong weathering degree. A deep horizon was particularly clay rich, and it was interpreted as a typical Terra-Rossa horizon. Luminescence dates increased with depth, reaching 122 ka for the deepest loess layer and 453 ka (minimum age) for the Terra-Rossa horizon. Conclusions: The deepest observed loess layer represents the oldest quantitatively dated aeolian deposition in Northern Italy up to now.

Background: Supporting and retaining older workers has become a strategic management goal for companies, considering the ageing of the workforce and the prolongation of working lives. The relationship between health and work is especially crucial for older workers with manual tasks, considering the impact of long-standing health impairments in older age. Although different studies investigated the relationship between work ability and job performance, few studies have analysed the impact of workers’ capability to balance between health and work demands, including managerial and organisational support (work-health balance). Considering health as a dynamic balance between work and health demands influenced by both individual and environmental factors, we assess the mediator role of work-health balance in the relation between work ability and job performance, both self-reported and assessed by the supervisor. Methods: The study utilises data from a case study of 156 manual workers, who were 50 years old or older and employed in a steel company in Italy. Data were collected inside the company as an organiational initiative to support age diversity. Results: The findings show that work-health balance partially mediates the relationship between work ability and self-rated job performance, while it does not mediate the relationship with job performance as rated by the supervisor. Supervisor-rated job performance is positively associated with work ability, while it decreases with the increasing perceived incompatibility between work and health. Conclusion: A perceived balance between health and work is a strategic factor in increasing manual older workers’ job performance. For older workers, not only the perceived capability to work is important but also the organisational health climate and supervisor’s support. More studies are needed to verify if managers overlook the importance of health climate and support, as strategic elements that can foster performance for older em

The aim of this research was the micromorphological and mineralogical characterization of calcrete outcrops located in central Morocco, with particular focus on microstructure development and palygorskite formation processes. Two study sites in the Al Haouz Plain (ca 30. km west to Marrakech city) were identified, in an area dominated by Quaternary sedimentary formations including layers cemented by carbonate and widespread calcareous crusts at the surface. The calcrete samples were examined by means of polarizing microscopy from thin sections, scanning electron microscopy / energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) from undisturbed samples, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The matrix of the calcrete material cementing the schist fragments composed of abundant calcite was associated mainly with palygorskite, quartz, and to a lesser extent illite/mica, feldspar, and chlorite. SEM observations indicated that palygorskite mainly occurred as fibres, fibre bundles and networks mainly grown on and/or enclosing calcite rhombohedrons. The EDX spectra of the palygorskite fibres exhibited strong silicon (Si) peaks followed by Al, Mg and Fe peaks. The EDX analysis of calcite rhombohedric crystals exhibited a strong Ca peak, followed by weak peaks of Si, Mg, Al and Fe possibly due to nearby or overlapped palygorskite crystals. One main palygorskite neoformation process was described. Palygorskite was authigenically formed (neoformed) during and after precipitation of calcite from percolating soil solutions in a near-surface setting. Peculiar sub-rounded microstructural units, here designated as pedogenic ooids/pisoids (according to the size), were determined in the matrix of the studied calcretes, associated to pendants and clay-rich rims surrounding them

On May 2, 2008, the Chaitén volcano, located in Chilean Patagonia, thought to be inactive for almost 10,000 years, erupted, emitting pyroclastic materials (ash and pumice) of rhyolitic composition. The ejected materials partially burned the forest vegetation in a wide radius, blocked the river systems, causing local flooding, and forced the majority of the inhabitants to abandon the nearby village of Chaitén. In 2005, 2009, the authors surveyed and sampled a number of paleosols and tephra sections located just north of the village. The present work shows the results of pedological, micromorphological, petrographic, and geochemical analyses, accompanied by radiocarbon dating, The studies have shown the presence of different soil complexes (Andosols), developed from pyroclastic materials and separated by erosional surfaces. Under the modern soil, consisting only of A horizons, paleosols follow with pedogenized horizons overlying altered and hardened volcanic materials. The mineralogical and geochemical analyses confirmed the sequence of these complexes and distinguished a double origin of the materials from which they developed: the most recent and superficial soil, although not significantly affected by the depositions of the last eruption, presented an evident geochemical and mineralogical affinity with tephra of the Chaitén volcano, differently from those of the deeper paleosols which have been found to derive from the ejecta of Michinmahuida volcano. The evolutionary model of the soils of the area has also been confirmed by the dates measured along the studied sections that are comparable with the dates of volcanic events during the Holocene already ascertained by the most recent volcanological studies.

The Reference Soil Group of the Arenosols consists of sandy soils. These are the soils developed from residual sands, in situ formed after weathering of old usually quartz-rich soil material or rock, and soils developed in recently deposited sands as they occur in deserts and beach lands.

Vengono illustrati i processi di formazione e la distribuzione geografica in Turchia dei Calcisols, spesso associati ai Leptosols.

Chromic and Rhodic Luvisols, otherwise known as the Red Mediterranean Soils or the Terra Rossa, show marked textural differences and genetic peculiarities within their profile.

il consumo di suolo in Italia ha raggiunto livelli di guardia. Conoscenza e protezione dei suoli divengono sempre più urgenti e indispensabili.