Ricerc@Sapienza

The aim of this research project is to attempt to resolve the detailed climate/vegetation history of the Last Glacial in Southern Italy by providing new palynological data from the promising record of Grotta Romanelli (Apulia). Thanks to a new excavation activity started in 2015 and carried out by Sapienza University of Rome, pollen samples from continuous stratigraphic levels were recovered in order to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental conditions of the cave during the Late Pleistocene. By studying the fossil pollen remains preserved at the site, I will be able to characterize changes in the local vegetation response to short and warm climatic events known as ¿interstadials¿ and to evidence the millennial-scale climatic variability in the Mediterranean region during this time interval. Since cave palynology is a valuable tool for the reconstruction of past vegetation but the depositional process is still unexplored, I will also focus on understanding the mechanisms involved in the pollen transport and deposition in cave environments and the influence of those factors which impact on the composition of the cave pollen assemblages (i.e. geomorphology, environment, animal/human presence).