Ecological regions or ecoregions derive from ecological classification of land and represent broad and discrete ecologically homogeneous areas within which natural communities and species interact with the physical elements of the environment. The aim of this paper is to define the ecoregions of Italy, southern Europe, based on a robust methodological process for classification and mapping. The ecoregions of Italy comprise 2 Divisions, 7 Provinces, 11 Sections and 33 Subsections and constitute the first comprehensive ecological classification of the country that integrates accurate and updated cartographies and knowledges on climate, vegetation, land units and biogeography. This classification has the strength to be adopted as a proper framework for ecological modelling, biodiversity conservation policies and sustainable territorial planning at the national and subnational level. © 2014, © 2014 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis

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In this paper we want to stress the role of geotourism as a means to promote environmental education and, on occasion, as a way to increase the touristic interest of an area. Geoparks are certainly the territory where geotourism can be best exploited. We propose a geoitinerary to discover the amazing, but poorly known, Middle Bussento Karst System, with the blind valley of the Bussento River, in the southeast of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Global Geopark. This is the only example, in Southern Italy, of a stream sinking underground and it is the second longest subsurface river path in Italy, making this a core area of the Geopark. We combined field surveys and literature data to create a geoitinerary that can be useful in helping to promote this site. This geoitinerary is applicable to both simple generic visitors and geo-tourists and has an educational purpose, especially in explaining the significance and the fragility of karst areas in terms of environmental protection. Moreover, it may represent a sort of stimulus for the growth of touristic activity in this inner area of the Geopark.

. Complex landslides, capable of reactivation, are typical slope movements in high relief areas. Due to their distribution, size and kinematics, these landforms represent a major hazard, posing a high risk to populations, settlements and infrastructures. This paper integrates geomorphological analyses, instrumental measurements and dendrochronological approaches in assessing a large, reactivated landslide system on the southern piedmont of Monte Sirino (southern Italy). The landslide system is associated with weak geological structures, earthquake activity, and rapid recent incision of the mid‐Pleistocene Noce lake deposits. Potential reactivation triggers include a higher regional annual rainfall, one of the highest in southern Italy, and more frequent heavy snowfalls in recent decades. Reactivation of the Sirino landslide system has important implications for the motorway connecting Salerno and Reggio Calabria, which crosses it. The results of our study show that the slide is reactivated with an almost decadal frequency and that major reactivations are correlated to prolonged snowfall, which occurs with increasing frequency in the southern Apennines. The last observation suggests the need for similar studies on the behaviour of other landslide systems in the southern Apennines, performing integrated approaches such as geotechnical and dendrogeomorphological analysis.

The paper deals with the hydro‐chemical analysis performed in order to reveal processes, sources, paths and timing of the runoff generation in an experimental catchment representative of the hilly, terrigenous and forested watershed in the Mediterranean humid eco‐region of southern Italy. The analysis is based on the data recorded at the outlet of the catchment during 2013–2014. A mixing law procedure was applied on discharge (Q) and electrical conductivity (EC) data, by using the Q–EC end members previously collected at selected groundwater, sub‐surficial and surficial stations. In this way, we found four bound curves delimiting fields in a Q–EC plot, each with hydro‐chemograph value ranges. At annual time scale, the analysis revealed a seasonal behaviour of the hydrological response, different for the wet period, when the aquifer is recharging, and the dry periods, when the aquifer is discharging, despite frequent summer rain showers. At event time scale, the catchment seems to show the behaviour of a typical hydro‐geomorphic threshold system. We interpreted this behaviour as due to a progressive addition of water from distinctive components (i.e. deep aquifer, riparian corridor, hillslope and hollow), each with originally different mechanisms of runoff production (i.e. groundwater, groundwater ridging, saturation excess, infiltration excess and soil pipe exfiltration) and response time. During the event, the contributing areas enlarge upward the riparian corridors and the zero‐order basins, where the aforementioned components become superposed and the mechanisms interact more and more. We hypothesize that the threshold values between different states of the system are defined by the intersections of the boundary curves on the Q–EC plot. Different patterns in the Q–EC hysteretic cycles are prevalently related to the pre‐event soil saturation and groundwater contributions to stormflow and recharge mechanisms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.