Gypsum lithofacies and stratigraphic architecture of a Messinian marginal basin (Piedmont Basin, NW Italy)

2021 ◽  
pp. 106009
Author(s):  
Marcello Natalicchio ◽  
Luca Pellegrino ◽  
Pierangelo Clari ◽  
Linda Pastero ◽  
Francesco Dela Pierre
Keyword(s):  
Marginal Basin ◽  
Stratigraphic Architecture ◽  
Nw Italy

scholarly journals The response of water column and sedimentary environments to the advent of the Messinian salinity crisis: insights from an onshore deep-water section (Govone, NW Italy)

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Mathia Sabino ◽  
Francesco Dela Pierre ◽  
Marcello Natalicchio ◽  
Daniel Birgel ◽  
Susanne Gier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Column ◽  
Deep Water ◽  
Bottom Layer ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
Sedimentary Environments ◽  
Water Column Stratification ◽  
Stratigraphic Architecture ◽  
Spatial Changes ◽  
Oxygen Stable Isotope ◽  
Nw Italy

Abstract During Messinian time, the Mediterranean underwent hydrological modifications culminating 5.97 Ma ago with the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC). Evaporite deposition and alleged annihilation of most marine eukaryotes were taken as evidence of the establishment of basin-wide hypersalinity followed by desiccation. However, the palaeoenvironmental conditions during the MSC are still a matter of debate, chiefly because most of its sedimentary record is buried below the abyssal plains of the present-day Mediterranean Sea. To shed light on environmental change at the advent and during the early phase of the MSC, we investigated the Govone section from the Piedmont Basin (NW Italy) using a multidisciplinary approach (organic geochemical, petrographic, and carbon and oxygen stable isotope analyses). The Govone section archives the onset of the crisis in a succession of organic-rich shales and dolomite-rich marls. The MSC part of the succession represents the deep-water equivalent of sulphate evaporites deposited at the basin margins during the first phase of the crisis. Our study reveals that the onset of the MSC was marked by the intensification of water-column stratification, rather than the establishment of widespread hypersaline conditions. A chemocline divided the water column into an oxygen-depleted, denser and more saline bottom layer and an oxygenated, upper seawater layer influenced by freshwater inflow. Vertical oscillations of the chemocline controlled the stratigraphic architecture of the sediments pertaining to the first stage of the MSC. Accordingly, temporal and spatial changes of water masses with different redox chemistries must be considered when interpreting the MSC event.

scholarly journals Disentangling the stratigraphic architecture of the Rivoli-Avigliana end moraine system (Western Alps, NW Italy)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Fioraso ◽  
Giovanni Monegato ◽  
Gianni Balestro ◽  
Irka Hajdas ◽  
Paolo Baggio
Keyword(s):  
Western Alps ◽  
Stratigraphic Architecture ◽  
Nw Italy

scholarly journals Different stress from parasites and mate choice in two female morphs of the blue-tailed damselfly

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Subrero ◽  
Irene Pellegrino ◽  
Marco Cucco
Keyword(s):  
Mating Behaviour ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Male Preference ◽  
Ischnura Elegans ◽  
Emergence Success ◽  
The Common ◽  
Nw Italy ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Pairing Behaviour

AbstractIn Odonates, female colour polymorphism is common and implies the presence of two or more female types with different colours and behaviours. To explain this phenomenon, several hypotheses have been proposed that consider morph frequency, population density, the presence of parasites, and mating behaviour. We studied the blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans, a species with a blue androchrome morph and two gynochrome morphs (the common green infuscans, and the rare orange rufescens-obsoleta). The size of adult males and females, the presence of parasites, and pairing behaviour between males and the three female morphs was assessed in field conditions throughout the reproductive season in NW Italy. Moreover, growth and emergence success of larvae produced by the different morphs was analyzed in standardized conditions. In the field, males showed a preference for the gynochrome infuscans females, despite a similar frequency of androchrome females. In test conditions, male preference for the infuscans females was also observed. Paired males and paired androchrome females were larger than unpaired individuals, while there were no differences in size between paired and unpaired infuscans females. Males and androchrome females were more parasitized than infuscans females. The survival and emergence success of larvae produced by androchrome females was higher than those of offspring produced by the infuscans females. Our results suggest that a higher survival of progeny at the larval stage could counterbalance the higher parasitism and the lower pairing success of andromorph adult females and highlight the importance of considering the whole life-cycle in polymorphism studies.

scholarly journals A Possible Role of Copernicus Sentinel-2 Data to Support Common Agricultural Policy Controls in Agriculture

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Filippo Sarvia ◽  
Elena Xausa ◽  
Samuele De Petris ◽  
Gianluca Cantamessa ◽  
Enrico Borgogno-Mondino
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Common Agricultural Policy ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Ndvi Time Series ◽  
Earth Observation Data ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Nw Italy ◽  
Sentinel 2

Farmers that intend to access Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contributions must submit an application to the territorially competent Paying Agencies (PA). Agencies are called to verify consistency of CAP contributions requirements through ground campaigns. Recently, EU regulation (N. 746/2018) proposed an alternative methodology to control CAP applications based on Earth Observation data. Accordingly, this work was aimed at designing and implementing a prototype of service based on Copernicus Sentinel-2 (S2) data for the classification of soybean, corn, wheat, rice, and meadow crops. The approach relies on the classification of S2 NDVI time-series (TS) by “user-friendly” supervised classification algorithms: Minimum Distance (MD) and Random Forest (RF). The study area was located in the Vercelli province (NW Italy), which represents a strategic agricultural area in the Piemonte region. Crop classes separability proved to be a key factor during the classification process. Confusion matrices were generated with respect to ground checks (GCs); they showed a high Overall Accuracy (>80%) for both MD and RF approaches. With respect to MD and RF, a new raster layer was generated (hereinafter called Controls Map layer), mapping four levels of classification occurrences, useful for administrative procedures required by PA. The Control Map layer highlighted that only the eight percent of CAP 2019 applications appeared to be critical in terms of consistency between farmers’ declarations and classification results. Only for these ones, a GC was warmly suggested, while the 12% must be desirable and the 80% was not required. This information alone suggested that the proposed methodology is able to optimize GCs, making possible to focus ground checks on a limited number of fields, thus determining an economic saving for PA and/or a more effective strategy of controls.

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