An integrated morpho-stratigraphic approach has been used to reconstruct the Quaternary history of the Boiano basin, the largest tectonic depression of the Molise Apennine (Italy). Lacustrine, marshy and fluvial environments alternate all along the investigated infilling succession as a response to tectonic subsidence, volcaniclastic inputs and climate changes, from ca. 500 ka. Two tephra layers 40Ar/39Ar have been dated and referred to the Middle Pleistocene explosive activity of the Roccamonfina volcano, while a younger tephra layer has been related to the Campi Flegrei Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (ca. 15 ka). Pollen analysis has highlighted the vegetation changes related to the 100 ka glacial–interglacial cyclicity, between MIS 13 and 2. From 500 to 350 ka, a strong subsidence led to lacustrine deposition, while between 350 and 250 ka, a decrease in subsidence rates caused the transition to fluvial–marshy conditions and, at a later stage, to floodplain environments. The analysis of palaeosurfaces allowed the eomorphological evolution of the basin to be reconstructed since the Middle Pleistocene and the morpho-sedimentary events to be related to the SW-NE extensional tectonics affecting this sector of the central-southern Apennine. This tectonic behavior is also testified by the differential subsidence rates recorded within the basin through the analysis of two deep cores drilled in the center of the Boiano town
Pollen records and pollen-based climate reconstructions fromthe Italian peninsula (centralMediterranean) show\ud
clear signals of vegetation change linked to variations inwater availability in theMediterranean basin over the past\ud
5 million years. Profound vegetation changes occurred in four major steps from the Pliocene to the present. The\ud
subtropical taxa that dominate Pliocene assemblages declined and then disappeared between 3–2.8 and\ud
1.66Ma (at around 2.8Ma in the North and later in the South), progressively being replaced by temperate Quercus\ud
forests at mid altitude. In the south Italy, Quercus expanded more at around 1.4–1.3 Ma and Fagus proportions\ud
increased after 0.5 Ma. Conifer forest (first mainly composed of Tsuga then by Abies and Picea) began to expand\ud
at 2.8 Ma, probably rather at high altitude, beginning at 2.8 Ma. Mediterranean-type forest, rare during the Early\ud
Pleistocene, developed and increased in diversity during the Middle Pleistocene. Open landscapes, with higher\ud
abundances of steppic taxa, becamemore frequent and extensive at the onset of Glacial/Interglacial (G/I) cyclicity\ud
around 2.6 Ma and gradually expanded with more and more marked glacials. Climate reconstructions done on\ud
selected pollen records from southern Italy suggest a decline in winter temperature and annual precipitation\ud
fromthe early Pleistocene to the Holocene. Specifically, both precipitation andwinter temperature reconstructions\ud
show changes in interglacial maxima and glacial minima at around 3–2.8 Ma, 2 Ma, 1.3–1.4 Ma and 0.5 Ma.\ud
This critical review provides evidence that the North–South precipitation gradient, with drier conditions in the\ud
South, has been a consistent feature of the Italian peninsula since the beginning of the Pleistocene
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