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The strong air temperature warming between the 1950s and 2016 in the Antarctic Peninsula region

Piemonte region (Northern Italy) shows an extraordinary richness of ornamental stones, whose exploitation strongly influenced the local culture during the centuries. Indeed, more than 100 lithotypes, mainly exploited in valleys and mountain areas, are used in the local, urban and architecture heritage of the region.The starting point of the present work consists in the creation and implementation of a dynamic geodatabase of the ornamental and dimension stones of Piemonte region. The geodatabase relies on the data model of the GeoPiemonte Map, derived from a thorough revision of existing geological maps and papers and presently available on a WebGIS application as an interactive scalable map on ARPA Piemonte geoportal.The second step of the work consists in the dissemination and exploitation of results for enhancing the use of local stones for restoration of historical buildings, infrastructures (eg. stone bridges) and rural villages, and for the construction of new “sustainable” buildings and houses (energy saving, use of natural materials, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions due to transports, etc.).The structure of the DB and the information reported in it are easily accessible and can be elaborated, implemented and shared not only by researchers, but also by public authorities, trade associations, consultants, etc., in order to (potentially):better program quarrying activities and enhance the exploitation at local level, trying to boost the use of local stones for restoration of historical buildings, rural villages and infrastructures; strongly promote the knowledge of the cultural and historical heritage at local level (not only historical villages, but also historical quarries, quarrymen villages, areas characterized by the presence of working plants, etc.); collect information for all the stone materials and cultural heritage present in Piemonte region. The structure of the DB and the methodology to collect data to improve it are replicable and applicable to other regions (at national and international level). The use of the DB may have economic and social returns, due to the reinvigoration of the ornamental and dimension stones market and to the potential growth of the quarrying activities (implementation of the staff in charge) and of their spin offs (working plants, restoration experts, designers, building enterprises, etc.).Many of the stones reported in the DB could be considered as Heritage Stones, being some of them already presented in previous congresses and papers (Montorfano and Baveno granites, serizzi and beole gneisses, Candoglia marble, Luserna stone gneiss, Bargiolina quartzite, etc.).This work was carried out in the framework of the GeoDIVE research project concerning the geodiversity of the Piemonte region, “from rocks to stones, from landforms to landscapes”, funded by Compagnia di San Paolo and University of Torino.

In biomonitoring, the knowledge of Background Element Content (BEC) values is an essential pre-requisite for the correct assessment of pollution levels. Supranational BECs for the highly performing lichen biomonitor Pseudevernia furfuracea were estimated by a literature review integrated by an extensive field survey. Methodologically homogeneous element content datasets, reflecting different exposure conditions across 16 countries, were compiled and comparatively analysed. Element content in samples from remote areas was compared to that of potentially enriched samples, indicating that the former were unaffected by anthropogenic contributions, thus allowing to propose their metrics as a supranational benchmark. The literature survey revealed a huge methodological variability: in particular, the sample acid digestion was identified as one of the most neglected pieces of information. Indeed, such analytical step was never expressly considered in the built up of review-based lichen BEC values, introducing a bias due to the merging of data from highly heterogeneous sample digests. Therefore, limited to original data from Italy, we investigated the variability of 43 elements in remote mountain areas, after having digested samples with two acid mixtures, with and without HF (i.e. total vs. partial digestion), both associated to ICP-MS multi-element analysis. The digestion performance was evaluated by comparing analytical results of field samples with the accuracy obtained on the standard BCR 482 (P. furfuracea). Overall, the total digestion showed a better performance, especially for Al, As, Ba, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Sn and Zn. Moreover, the sampling sites were characterized for anthropization, land use, climate and lithology at different scale resolution and the relationships between environmental descriptors and BECs based on partial sample digestion were tested by Principal Component Regression (PCR) modelling. Elemental composition resulted significantly dependent on land use, climate and lithology and regression models correctly reproduced the content of lithogenic elements at randomly selected sites. Finally, a methodological gap in biomonitoring procedures was filled by providing two sets of BEC values based on different sample digests for use as a reference in biomonitoring applications. Since BEC patterns were proved to be context-dependent, both sets referred to environmentally homogeneous macro-regions, thoroughly identified by a multivariate approach.

In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi, and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the bryophyte genera Diplophyllum and Ptychostomum, the fungal genera Arrhenia, Gymnosporangium, and Sporidesmium and the lichen genera Arthonia, Coenogonium, Flavoplaca, Gyalolechia, Parmotrema, Peltigera, Pterygiopsis, Squamarina, Tornabea, and Waynea.

Gli studi di biomonitoraggio attivo e passivo di elementi in traccia basati sul lichene epifita Pseudevernia furfuracea sono molto numerosi ma caratterizzati da una importante eterogeneità metodologica: si è ritenuto perciò opportuno procedere alla sua caratterizzazione mediante la revisione critica di 62 lavori di rilevanza nazionale e internazionale. I dati di contenuto elementare derivanti dal processo di revisione, integrati da quelli ottenuti dalla campagna di campionamento condotta in Italia nel 2014/15 dagli autori, sono stati raccolti in 3 dataset distinti, rispettivamente per (i) talli nativi raccolti in aree di background (BG), (ii) talli nativi utilizzati in studi di biomonitoraggio passivo (P), e (iii) talli trapiantati (T). Il confronto inter-dataset effettuato su 25 elementi tramite test non parametrici ha evidenziato valori significativamente inferiori per il dataset BG, proposto come riferimento preliminare per studi di biomonitoraggio a livello europeo. Al fine di fornire dei valori di riferimento nazionali relativi a macroaree omogenee e per analizzare le relazioni tra variabili ambientali e contenuto elementare baseline, i siti di raccolta sono stati caratterizzati in ambiente GIS in termini di antropizzazione, uso del suolo, clima e litologia. Una cluster analysis della matrice “siti di raccolta  elementi” (62  43) ha consentito l’identificazione di 3 gruppi di siti omogenei per i quali sono stati forniti i valori di background nazionale. La predittività delle variabili ambientali sul contenuto elementare baseline è stata testata tramite Principal Component Regression: una PCA della matrice “siti di raccolta  variabili ambientali” (62  13) ha permesso di utilizzare combinazioni lineari delle variabili di partenza in modelli di regressione multipla applicati al contenuto dei 43 elementi analizzati. I modelli hanno prodotto risultati statisticamente significativi per molti elementi litogenici ma non per elementi di origine antropica.

This paper presents a minero-petrographic study of the rocks employed in the building of stone bridges over the Po River in the city of Turin (Piemonte Region—NW of Italy). In all the bridges, the dimension stones are present in different quantities and elements, either representing the only building material or associated with several artificial materials. The total number of bridges on the Po River is six, three of which are made of natural stones (Princess Isabella Bridge, King Umberto I Bridge and King Vittorio Emanuele I Bridge) and three are built with artificial materials with minor dimension stones (Balbis Bridge, Queen Margherita Bridge and Sassi Bridge). The lithologies of the six bridges have been identified in order to find out the corresponding geological units and the original quarry site. The stones mainly consist of rocks from the western Alps, with a prevalence of metamorphic rocks such as gneisses, as well as intrusive igneous rocks. Sedimentary rocks are minor represented.