Ricerc@Sapienza

I have carried out pollen analysis of Holocene, lateglacial, Late Pleistocene and Early Pleistocene sediments from various environmental contexts (coastal lakes, lagoons, estuarine sites, volcanic maar, tectonic basins, marine sediments, and inorganic and organic archaeological remains) cooperating with geologists, archaeologists, sedimentologists and palaeontologists from various Italian and foreign universities My main research interests are:

1) palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of Holocene lagoon and lacustrine coastal sites in Italy, through the analysis of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, and micro-charcoals carried out on sediments, with particular attention to the vegetation changes in response to geomorphic processes, climate and human impact.

2) palaeovegetational and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of continental and coastal basins in Italy during the Pleistocene, mainly addressed to: a) investigate the vegetation development at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition; b) add new data and understandings on the long-term forest dynamics through the glacial/interglacial cycles of the Pleistocene.

3) detection and characterization of regional and supra-regional vegetation changes driven by centennial- to millennial-scale fluctuations of climate occurred in the central Mediterranean region (e.g. Younger Dryas, pre-boreal Oscillation, 4.2 ka event, centennial variability of the Solar magnetic activity and North Atlantic Oscillation).

4) investigation of the influence of human activities on the evolution of the vegetation during the last millennia, with a special focus on the coastal ecosystems.