Ricerc@Sapienza

Pollen analysis is of fundamental importance in the study of the paleoclimate and of the environmental changes of the past. The Mediterranean basin is one of the most sensitive places to climate change in particular in historical time. For this reason, it has long been studied to understand, using various types of analyses, adaptation strategies of plants and animals to the progressive increase in temperatures and human pressure. The area of Southern Balkan, due to the long, continuous and important human history is of particular interest. The palynological study of the sediments of Lake Volvi (Macedonian Region, Greece) will be a valuable contribution to the environmental reconstruction of the last ca. 2,000 years. The high-resolution pollen sequence will describe in detail the vegetation dynamics for the region in historical times. In fact, given the importance of the Macedonian region, that was an important trade-hub during Roman and Byzantine times, the study of the Volvi record constitutes a novelty, as this is the first time that such a 360° investigation is proposed in the Balkan peninsula for the last few millennia. Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach, the project will improve three main aspects of knowledge: (1) providing an important palaeoenvironmental archive on a lake never studied before ; (2) combining environmental and historical data in order to address specific roles played by nature and humans using a new methodology; (3) achieving deep comprehension of vegetation dynamics using the integration between palaeoecological and ecological data.