Aim: Long-term ecological data provide a stepped frame of island ecosystems transformation after successive waves of human colonizations, important to determine the baselines for restoration, eradication, and monitoring. Here we focus on timing and ecological impact of human settlement on the Canary Islands. We report analyses from a 4800-year sedimentary sequence from Gran Canaria, disentangling forest responses to natural fire from early human pressure. Location: La Calderilla, a volcanic maar caldera at 1770 m a.s.l. on Gran Canaria. Taxon: plants and fungi. Methods: A core from the caldera infill was analysed for sediment properties, pollen, micro- and macrocharcoal, with radiocarbon and biochronology dating. Fossil data were statistically zoned and interpreted with the help of cross-correlation and ordination analyses. Surface samples and a pollen-vegetation training set were used as modern analogues for vegetation reconstruction. Results: Before human settlement (4800-2000 cal. yr BP), pine (Pinus canariensis) pollen dominated. Extensive dry pine forests characterised the highlands, although with temporary declining phases, followed by prompt (sub-centennial scale) recovery. Towards 2280 cal. yr BP there was a shift to open vegetation, marked by an increase in coprophilous spores. Coincidental with independent evidence of human settlement in the pine zone (2000-470 cal. yr BP) there was a decline of pine and a peak in charcoal. Following historic settlement (470-0 cal. yr BP), pollen producers from anthropogenic habitats, secondary vegetation and coprophilous fungi increased in abundance, reflecting higher pressure of animal husbandry and farming. Modern moss polsters reflect extensive reforestation since 1950 CE (Common Era). Main conclusions: From 4800 cal. yr BP, the pristine vegetation covering the Gran Canaria highlands was a mosaic of dry pine forests and open vegetation. The pine forests sustained intense fires, which may well have promoted habitat diversity. Human interference was initiated around 2280 cal. yr BP probably by recurrent cultural firing and animal husbandry, triggering a steady trend of forest withdrawal and expansion of grasses and scrubs, until the final disappearance of the pine forest locally in the 20th century. Grasslands were found to be of ancient cultural origin in the summit areas of Gran Canaria, although they underwent an expansion after the Castilian Conquest.

The Eurasian (née European) Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) was established in 2013 to provide a public database of high-quality modern pollen surface samples to help support studies of past climate, land cover, and land use using fossil pollen. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on fossil pollen found in Late Quaternary sedimentary archives throughout the Eurasian region. The EPD is in turn part of the rapidly growing Neotoma database, which is now the primary home for global palaeoecological data. This paper describes version 2 of the EMPD in which the number of samples held in the database has been increased by 60% from 4826 to 8134. Much of the improvement in data coverage has come from northern Asia, and the database has consequently been renamed the Eurasian Modern Pollen Database to reflect this geographical enlargement. The EMPD can be viewed online using a dedicated map-based viewer at https://empd2.github.io and downloaded in a variety of file formats at https: //doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.909130 (Chevalier et al., 2019).

Evidence from various climate proxies provides us with increasingly reliable proof that only in the past 10 millennia were natural systems more or less as we see them at the present (without considering human impact). Prior to 10,000 years ago, natural systems repeatedly changed under the influence of an unstable climate. This is particularly true over the last one million years. During these times, terrestrial environments were populated by a diversity of large animals that did not survive either the last dramatic climate change or the increasing power of humans. The volume of continental ice covering the land and its impact on the planet's physiography* and vegetation have varied consistently. We can try to imagine extreme conditions: the very cold springtimes of the full glacials*, and the warm springtimes of the rapid deglaciation phases, with enormous volumes of water feeding terrifying rivers. Most of this story is frozen in the ice cover of Greenland and Antarctica, the deep layers of which have been reached by human coring activities only over the past half century. Shorter cores have been drilled in high-altitude ice caps (e.g., in the Andes) that provide insight into other parts of the planet. The interpretation of the signals locked into the ice cores led to the reconstruction of climatic curves covering approximately the past 800 millennia. In addition, long sediment cores have been recovered from thousands of lakes across the globe and yielded data useful to estimate climatic trends based on pollen* records. In the past one to three million years, the continents and oceans were in roughly their present-day locations. Environmental factors, including tectonics (mountain uplift or closure of ocean gateways), interacted with the overall long-term oscillation in atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration, which, in turn, influenced vegetation cover and ecosystem composition. Well-established glacial-interglacial* cycles impacted biotic dispersal* events at mid-to-high latitudes and determined the geographical restriction and expansion of tropical and subtropical (warm-temperate) biomes around the globe. This book chapter constitutes an imaginary field trip, presenting the reader with exemplary records of environments, plants, large mammals, and hominins impacted by cooling and warming phases, glaciations, changes in rainfall patterns, and sea level culminating in the world of today.

This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge about the millennial scale climate variability characterizing Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) in S-Europe and the Mediterranean area and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems. The sequence of Dansgaard-Oeschger events, as recorded by Greenland ice cores and recognizable in isotope profiles from speleothems and high-resolution palaeoecological records, led to dramatic variations in glacier extent and sea level configuration with major impacts on the physiography and vegetation patterns, both latitudinally and altitudinally. The recurrent succession of (open) woodlands, including temperate taxa, and grasslands with xerophytic elements, have been tentatively correlated to GIs in Greenland ice cores. Concerning colder phases, the Greenland Stadials (GSs) related to Heinrich events (HEs) appear to have a more pronounced effect than other GSs on woodland withdrawal and xerophytes expansion. Notably, GS 9-HE4 phase corresponds to the most severe reduction of tree cover in a number of Mediterranean records. On a long-term scale, a reduction/opening of forests throughout MIS 3 started from Greenland Interstadials (GIs) 14/13 (ca. 55-48 ka), which show a maximum in woodland density. At that time, natural environments were favourable for Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs) to migrate from Africa into Europe as documented by industries associated with modern hominin remains in the Levant. Afterwards, a variety of early Upper Palaeolithic cultures emerged (e.g., Uluzzian and Proto-Aurignacian). In this chronostratigraphic framework, attention is paid to the Campanian Ignimbrite tephra marker, as a pivotal tool for deciphering and correlating several temporal-spatial issues crucial for understanding the interaction between AMHs and Neandertals at the time of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition.

Tesi Magistrale in Scienze della Terra di carattere stratigrafico-sedimentologico.

Tesi Magistrale in Scienze della Terra di carattere stratigrafico-sedimentologico-

Tesi Magistrale in Scienze della Terra di carattere stratigrafico-sedimentologico.

This study is part of an ongoing project aiming to unravel the different phases of growth during talar development. Overall, our preliminary results suggest that age-related morphological variations of the talus may be used to determine the general age of juvenile skeletal remains, which could be valuable to many archaeological and forensic researchers. Future studies will explore larger samples, including individuals younger than 12 months, and a more in depth analysis (i.e., single surfaces) to better evaluate differences between groups.

During his explorations in temperate and tropical mountains, Humboldt made crucial observations about the importance of elevational climate gradients as drivers for biodiversity. We show here that pollen deposition may be a suitable, and statistically robust proxy for climate-driven elevational eco-gradients, thus assisting in the interpretation of modern ecosystem dynamics as well as in past climate reconstructions from fossil records. Our specific challenges are: (1) to derive consistent pollen-climate relationships in complex mountain regions bearing differences in local climates and intensity of human impact; (2) to find potential indicator taxa useful for paleoclimate reconstructions; (3) to estimate the effect of local parameters on the relationships linking pollen percentages variations, elevation and climate and put forward new hints for calibration of fossil sites; (4) to obtain quantitative climate reconstructions and compare the results with instrumental modelled data and finally (5) to integrate the newly-obtained pollen spectra into larger modern pollen samples datasets. We analyzed pollen deposition in the European Alps and the Canaries, captured by surface samples (subsampling mosses, forest litter, surface soil in open ground land) and artificial traps both at the ground level and over it. To examine the variance explained by climate parameters, elevational training sets were equipped with site-specific climatologies, together with an array of environmental variables (i.e. proxies for fire, nutrients, pastoralism, terrain parameters, plant cover). The potential for a quantitative reconstruction of sensible climate parameters was tested by canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), enhanced hierarchical logistic regression (extended eHOF models), and weighted averaging (WA).

La successione stratigrafica della torbiera Moia Armentarga è un importante archivio naturale che documenta la storia dell'ambiente e della vegetazione negli ultimi 11 mila anni alle alte Alpi Orobie Bergamasche. È la torbiera di altitudine (= situata sopra il limite degli alberi) più elevata delle Alpi Orobie e il primo archivio naturale finora studiato nel comprensorio orobico. Lo studio ha restituito una storia degli ecosistemi, dell'ambiente, del clima, della frequentazione e delle attività umane alle alte quote del crinale orobico. La ricerca fornisce la base culturale per la valorizzazione della biodiversità del territorio orobico, nonché per la gestione degli ambienti seminaturali nelle fasce altitudinali montana, subalpina e alpina. La realizzazione di questo lavoro è stata svolta in stretta collaborazione tra il C.N.R. - Istituto per la Dinamica dei Processi Ambientali, il DISAT presso l'Università Milano - Bicocca, il Parco delle Orobie Bergamasche e i ricercatori archeologi del Museo Archeologico di Bergamo.

Le analisi archeobotaniche eseguite sui campioni di sedimento provenienti dal tumulo funerario USM843 del sito Aosta - Piazza Caduti nei Lager Nazisti hanno fornito informazioni per le ricostruzioni paleoambientali dell'area e alcune indicazioni tafonomiche per l'interpretazione del deposito in esame. Esse inoltre assumono un particolare significato per la carenza di tali studi per l'età del Ferro nella regione della Valle d'Aosta. Lo spettro carpologico ottenuto seppur molto limitato ci dà informazione della coltivazione di farro e spelta sul fondovalle nell'età del Ferro. Le analisi antracologiche hanno fornito interessanti dati circa le essenze vegetali utilizzate per i focolari per le attività domestiche o artigianali e circa la composizione delle foreste circostanti il sito, dove sono risultati dominanti querce e pino silvestre. Eccezionale è il ritrovamento di numerose piccole schegge di legno, identificate come pino silvestre, che potrebbero avvalorare l'ipotesi dell'esistenza di una struttura lignea che sosteneva la camera funeraria o conteneva il defunto, andata totalmente distrutta dalla decomposizione. Non sono stati trovati resti organici interpretabili come offerte votive che accompagnavano il defunto e neppure residui stomacali liberati dalla decomposizione del cadavere. La ridotta dimensione dei resti (organici e non) rinvenuti e la loro distribuzione nei campioni analizzati suggeriscono una distinzione tra i sedimenti giacenti sotto gli elementi scheletrici e deposti tra le grandi lastre del pavimento (campioni priorità 1 e 2), più ricchi di resti organici, e quelli che hanno riempito il tumulo successivamente (priorità 3). La percolazione di acqua e sedimento a colmare i vuoti creati dalla camera funeraria e dalle grosse lastre crollate ha prodotto un rimescolamento superficiale che ha coinvolto gli elementi più leggeri senza sconvolgere la distribuzione degli elementi ossei dello scheletro. Un'azione di disturbo potrebbe essere imputabile anche alla microfauna che si può essere insinuata tra le pietre sino a raggiungere il vuoto della camera funeraria.

L'anfiteatro morenico costruito dal ghiacciaio del Garda in Italia Settentrionale comprende più di 40 laghetti intermorenici, che contengono importanti archivi stratigrafici per la storia ambientale, climatica e culturale della regione del Garda durante gli ultimi 21 mila anni. Nel presente lavoro si esamina innanzitutto il riempimento sedimentario di questi bacini con riguardo alla classificazione e nomenclatura dei peculiari sedimenti carbonatici e organici che vi si sono accumulati, senza tuttavia spingersi all'analisi di facies. Le denominazioni di tipici depositi lacustri - gyttja, dy, sapropel, fango carbonatico, torba - vengono discusse allo scopo di precisarne l'impiego nei piccoli laghi a sedimentazione carbonatico-organica di bassa profondità. I laghetti intermorenici dell'anfiteatro gardesano sono laghi chiusi, senza un emissario, i quali, dopo l'estinzione del sistema idrografico fluvioglaciale, sono stati caratterizzati da sedimentazione chimica e biogenica caratterizzata da alternanze e mescolanze di componenti organici e carbonatici. Le sequenze sedimentarie finora studiate abbracciano interamente il tardoglaciale e gran parte dell'Olocene, ma sono troncate superiormente dalle attività agricole, che spesso hanno asportato i depositi posteriori all'età del Bronzo. Sono stati selezionati e brevemente presentati alcuni dei principali eventi paleoecologici documentati da studi paleobotanici-stratigrafici, in particolare: (a)La storia del Lago Lucone di Polpenazze del Garda durante le prime fasi dell'ultima culminazione glaciale del Pleistocene Superiore, allorchè il bacino si presentava come un lago di contatto glaciale, talora alimentato da corsi d'acqua margino-glaciali; (b)La storia dell'ultima deglaciazione al Lago Paùl di Manerba (prosciugato all'inizio del XX secolo); in particolare la transizione da una fase di apporto di silt di fusione glaciale, ricco di microfossili rimaneggiati dall'erosione subglaciale, ad una fase di precipitazione chimica e biochimica di carbonati (fanghi carbonatici e gyttja carbonatica). La transizione è ben datata a 17,5 mila anni calendario; (c)Gli episodi di alto stazionamento lacustre con sedimentazione di fanghi organici laminati tipo dy nell'Olocene antico, è stata riscontrata in tre laghi intermorenici; (d)La successione di alternanze organico-carbonatiche, tipiche del medio Olocene prima dell'impianto degli abitati palafitticoli. Il motivo "a bande" richiama un motivo di cicliche oscillazioni dei livelli lacustri ed è ben documentato nelle successioni del paleolago Lavagnone e del Lago Lucone; (e)L'impatto abrupto degli abitati palafitticoli durante l'antica età del Bronzo determina il collasso degli ecosistemi limnici naturali nei laghi più piccoli (Lavagnone, Lucone) e profonde trasformazioni nei meccanismi di dispersione e deposizione dei resti vegetali, con particolare riguardo alle associazioni polliniche che si accumulano nella colonna d'acqua in prossimità del margine degli abitati palafitticoli; (f)Al Lago Lucone e al Laghetto di Castellaro Lagusello è stato possibile documentare la sequenza deposizionale successiva alla conclusione dell'episodio degli abitati lacustri nell'Età del Bronzo Recente. In particolare nella sequenza del Lago Lucone, durante la tarda Età del Ferro e in Età romana si osservano nuove fasi di antropizzazione e una corrispondente intensificazione della sedimentazione di fanghi organici nel laghetto. Viceversa, nell'Alto Medioevo, le attività agricole vengono abbandonate, come documentato dalle associazioni polliniche e da sedimentazione carbonatica predominante. Un deciso incremento del tasso di deforestazione ed espansione delle aree agricole si registra all'inizio del tardo medioevo (X-XI sec. AD), fino alla bonifica del Lago alla fine del XV sec. AD, da allora ridotto ad una piccola palude; Le sequenze sedimentarie di questi laghetti conservano dunque importanti archivi naturali, oltre che archeologici. La conservazione di questi archivi sedimentari è gravemente minacciata dalle attività agricole e dalle opere infrastrutturali.

Montane vegetation is traditionally known to be particularly sensitive to climate changes. The strong elevational climatic gradient that characterizes mountain areas results in a steep ecological slope, with several ecotones occurring in a small area. Modern pollen deposition is significantly predicted by both vegetation cover and pollen production; in turn, each predictor is significantly predicted by elevation and climate. Analyses of modern pollen deposition are essential to calibrate fossil pollen sequences accounting for site topography and depositional process, and thus for pollen-based palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate reconstructions. This study analyzes the relationships among modern pollen assemblages, vegetation and climate along an elevational gradient in the outer belt of the European Alps. Results of Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) demonstrated a general good agreement with previous studies, which identified elevation as the main gradient in the variation of modern pollen and vegetation assemblages in elevational transects. Modern pollen assemblages have been studied in pollen traps and moss samples from different vegetation communities along an elevational transect (stretching from 1240 to 2390 m asl), as well as the vegetation using the Braun-Blanquet system up to the 10 m radius scale, field vegetation surveys and aerial photographs for plant cover of the main species for larger surfaces. Moss samples are assumed to record an average of several years of pollen deposition and can be profitably used as analogues for fossil pollen assemblages; while pollen traps can be expressed as Pollen Accumulation Rates (PAR) and used as a modern reference to estimate past plant population densities. Alnus viridis, the main woody species forming dwarf forests in the oceanic-type timberline ecotone, shows a specific elevational PAR arrangement under modern climate conditions. Strong pollen producers (e.g. Pinus sylvestris/mugo, Picea, Castanea, Corylus and Ostrya) display enhanced uphill wind-transport to subalpine and alpine zones leading to wider pollen belts with less defined boundaries than vegetation. To overcome these limitations, potential indicator pollen taxa of alpine/subalpine belts (Vaccinium, Rhododendron, Loiseleuria) documented in this study and PAR of timberline species (e.g. Alnus viridis) could be useful. Thus, if it is possible to identify the major vegetation types and ecotones by means of their modern pollen deposition (e.g. timberline ecotone), other limits, poorly marked by changes in pollen dispersal (e.g. treeline) are not resolved by pollen proxies alone.

Il contributo, dopo aver analizzato i fattori che influenzano la capacità di affrontare e superare efficacemente situazioni di emergenza legate a rischi naturali e/o antropici, propone una soluzione implementata nell'ambito del progetto "SIMULATOR_ADS: un Sistema Integrato ModULAre per la gesTione e prevenziOne dei Rischi - Arricchito con Dati Satellitari", una piattaforma ICT originale, con un'architettura basata su servizi Web, a supporto degli operatori e delle autorità locali di Protezione Civile nelle fasi di preparazione e di gestione delle emergenze.

The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of stream water, springs, groundwater tapped from irrigation wells and acid mine drainages were determined during two different surveys in 2015 in an area highly impacted by past-mining activity of Apuan Alps (Italy), as a guidance on good practices for water management. The isotopic local meteoric water line (LMWL) was built by monthly collecting rainwater between 2014 and 2018, given by delta D = 7.02 +/- 0.35 x delta O-18 + 8.54 +/- 2.89. The obtained results indicate that acid mine drainages (AMD) are supplied by freshwater from karst systems which flow throughout the post-mining workings. Such waters contaminate by interactions with sulfides (pyrite) that remained unmined in the ore-bodies. During rainstorms, infiltration rainwater displaces water ponding within mine, sharply increasing the outflow rate of highly-contaminated AMD. Acidic drippings in tunnels show an isotopic shift in both delta O-18 and delta D values attributable to pyrite oxidation and Fe hydrolysis. The data reveal that karst-springs represents the primary supply for the stream. The isotopic data also reveal that waters flowing in the bedrock carbonate aquifer represent the main feeding component for the overlying alluvial aquifer tapped by wells. The prevailing transfer of clean freshwaters from the carbonate aquifer towards the alluvial aquifer system mitigates the possible influence of contaminated water from stream seepage. However, these observations require a monitoring program on water quality to be established.

Not available

Il mercurio (Hg) è un inquinante ubiquitario, persistente e altamente tossico con effetti nocivi sulla salute umana e sull'ambiente. Fino ad oggi, sono sempre stati riscontrati valori di concentrazioni al di sotto del limite di rilevabilità del metodo da studi effettuati sui livelli di mercurio nelle acque in bottiglia, quando determinate utilizzando le più diffuse tecniche strumentali. Queste sono spesso molto costose e inaccessibili per molti laboratori. In questo studio, è stata impiegata una metodologia più economica basata sulla spettrometria a fluorescenza atomica a vapori freddi per determinare le concentrazioni totali di mercurio (HgT) nelle acque minerali naturali. In totale sono state analizzate 255 acque che rappresentano 164 tipologie differenti (provenienti da 136 sorgenti situate in 18 regioni italiane). In tutti i campioni, le concentrazioni di HgT sono state determinate nell'intervallo da sub-ng a pochi nanogrammi per litro, ben al di sotto, circa mille volte, del limite normativo nazionale ed europeo (1 ug/L). Le differenze nelle concentrazioni di HgT misurate sono correlate non solo alle caratteristiche ambientali delle sorgenti, ma anche alla portata e all'impatto delle attività umane. Concentrazioni più elevate, rispetto al valore medio di HgT del totale delle acque, sono state trovate in acque provenienti da regioni con attività estrattive e/o termali e nelle vicinanze di aree vulcaniche. Questi dati ci hanno permesso di stimare l'assunzione di mercurio da parte della popolazione (adulti, ragazzi e bambini) dal loro consumo di acqua minerale. L'assunzione giornaliera media di mercurio è risultata notevolmente inferiore, non solo rispetto al valore provvisorio tollerabile (1 ug/L secondo la legislazione europea e italiana), ma anche rispetto al valore stimato di assunzione settimanale tollerabile (PTWI) (4 ug/kg peso corporeo) raccomandato dal comitato di esperti congiunto FAO/OMS sugli additivi alimentari (JECFA).

In August 2016, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Central Italy, starting a devastating seismic sequence, aggravated by other two events of magnitude 5.9 and 6.5, respectively. After the frst mainshock, four Italian institutions installed a dense temporary network of 50 seismic stations in an area of 260 km2. The network was registered in the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks with the code 3A and quoted with a Digital Object Identifer (https://doi.org/10.13127/SD/ ku7Xm12Yy9). Raw data were converted into the standard binary miniSEED format, and organized in a structured archive. Then, data quality and completeness were checked, and all the relevant information was used for creating the metadata volumes. Finally, the 99Gb of continuous seismic data and metadata were uploaded into the INGV node of the European Integrated Data Archive repository. Their use was regulated by a Memorandum of Understanding between the institutions. After an embargo period, the data are now available for many different seismological studies.

Accurate measurements of total mercury (HgT) in wet precipitation samples, collected in the suburban area of Cosenza (Southern Italy), over a 2-year period, from November 2013 to February 2016, were performed to study the distribution of rainwater HgT concentra ons and to evaluate the seasonal contribution of wet deposi on to the Hg flux . Precipitation samples were collected using a wet-only collector at the sampling site (39°21'N, 16°13'E, 217 m a.s.l.) inside the Campus of UniCal (University of Calabria) in Rende, Italy, following harmonized sampling procedures reported in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the GMOS project. The volume weighted mean (VWM) of total mercury concentrations in 2014 and 2015 were 7.1 ± 3.9 ng L-1 and 15.1 ± 10.4 ng L-1 (mean ± SD), respectively, whilst the wet deposition flux of HgT in 2014 and 2015 were 6.1 ?g m-2 y-1 and 17.1 ?g m-2 y-1, respectively. Seasonal VWM HgT concentrations in 2014 shows highest values in spring followed by winter, summer, and fall. In 2015, VWM HgT concentrations were characterized by highest Hg levels in summer followed by spring, fall, and winter. In 2014, the wet deposition fluxes of HgT were in the order of spring > winter>fall>summer, while for the 2015 the largest wet deposition flux was observed in fall, due to the more abundant rainfall events, followed by winter, summer, and spring, respectively. In order to understand the potential mercury sources in precipitation during the period of this study, atmospheric pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NOx, SO2), local meteorological parameters, back trajectories (NOAA Hysplit) and satellite observation tools for wildfire/biomass burning events have been considered and their contribution was singled out. This work concerns Hg in wet deposition and an assessment of the occurrence and possible sources of rainwater HgT. This has been done using information that was not previously available to estimate the impact of mercury due to wet deposition in Southern Italy.

The Variscan basement of Orobic Alps (Central Southalpine basement) comprises micaschists and gneisses, interlayered with metagranitoids, metabasics, marbles and quartzites. Early Palaeozoic ages are inferred from sedimentary protoliths (e.g. Gansser and Pantic 1988), whereas metaintrusives mainly derive from Ordovician granitoids (e.g. Colombo et al. 1994; Bergomi 2004). In the Orobic basement, tectono-metamorphic units marked by staurolite-bearing assemblages are surrounded by other units that fully developed their structural evolution under greenschist facies conditions (Spalla & Gosso, 1999; Zanoni & Spalla, 2018 and refs therein). The St + Grt + Bt + Wm + Pl + Qtz ± Ky mineral assemblages developed at metamorphic climax in metapelites ad are locally predated by Cld-bearing parageneses. The ages proposed for these Barrovian assemblages range from 340 and 310 Ma (e.g.: Mottana et al., 1985; Diella et al., 1992; Bertotti et al., 1993; Siletto et al., 1993) and the metamorphic imprint is classically interpreted as due to the thermal relaxation consequent to the Variscan collision. Similar rock assemblages and metamorphic parageneses characterises the western Maures basement, representing the external part of the southern French Variscan belt, where ages similar to those obtained in the Orobic basement are proposed for the St-bearing assemblages (330-320 Ma, Schneider et al., 2014). Both these Barrovian portions of the Variscan basement, at present located inside and outside the Alpine fronts, have been re-equilibrated under greenschist-facies conditions during the late Variscan exhumation. The traslation towards shallower structural levels is accompanied by a transition from Barrovian (intermediate P/T ratio) to Abukuma (low P/T ratio) metamorphic gradient. Their tectonic evolution, associated with their metamorphic history, is here discussed also on the basis of results from numerical simulations of subduction-collision systems, recently highlighting that the Barrovian imprint can develops also during active subduction (Regorda et al., 2017) and not exclusively during continental collision (e.g. England & Thompson 1984; Gerbault et al., 2018).