Multiproxy study of 7500-year-old wooden sickles from the Lakeshore Village of La Marmotta, Italy.

The lakeshore site of La Marmotta is one of the most important Early Neolithic sites of Mediterranean Europe. The site is famous for the exceptional preservation of organic materials, including numerous wooden artefacts related to navigation, agriculture, textile production, and basketry. This article presents interdisciplinary research on three of the most complete and well-preserved sickles recovered from the site, yet unpublished.

Models to predict the start of the airborne pollen season.

Aerobiological data can be used as indirect but reliable measures of flowering phenology to analyze the response of plant species to ongoing climate changes. The aims of this study are to evaluate the performance of several phenological models for predicting the pollen start of season (PSS) in seven spring-flowering trees (Alnus glutinosa, Acer negundo, Carpinus betulus, Platanus occidentalis, Juglans nigra, Alnus viridis, and Castanea sativa) and in two summer-flowering herbaceous species (Artemisia vulgaris and Ambrosia artemisiifolia) by using a 26-year aerobiological data set collected in Turin (Northern Italy). Data showed a reduced interannual variability of the PSS in the summer-flowering species compared to the spring-flowering ones.

Elevation-induced variations of pollen assemblages in the North-western Alps: An analysis of their value as temperature indicators.

Seventy-seven modern pollen samples from various elevations (350-2680 m a.s.l.

An experience of data quality evaluation in pollen monitoring activities.

In this work we report the results of some quality control tests performed on laboratory procedures referring to aerobiological monitoring activities between 2005 and 2007. In every test, the results of each operator have been compared with the scores of a group of experts. For quality evaluation, we have used accuracy and precision to define the percentage error for identification of taxa and counts of pollen grains.

[Role of man in the history of vegetation of the Ellero valley (maritime Alps, Italy)].

The pollen analysis of a sediment core from a peat bog (Rifugio Mondovi) at the mountain belt (1760 m) in the Ellero Valley (Italian Maritime Alps) shows the postglacial vegetation history. The sequence starts at 12,000 BP during a peak of pine pollen; this first phase shows a low representation of birch and the presence of Tilia. Younger Dryas is characterised by increasing percentages of Artemisia, showing the presence of deciduous Quercus, fir and beech.