Geomorphological Signature of Late Pleistocene Sea Level Oscillations in Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area (Adriatic Sea, SE Italy)

Abstract

Morphostratigraphy is a useful tool to reconstruct the sequence of processes responsible for shaping the landscape. In marine and coastal areas, where landforms are only seldom directly recognizable given the difficulty to have eyewitness of sea-floor features, it is possible to correlate geomorphological data derived from indirect surveys (marine geophysics and remote sensing) with data obtained from direct ones performed on-land or by scuba divers. In this paper, remote sensing techniques and spectral images allowed high-resolution reconstruction of both morpho-topography and morpho-bathymetry of the Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area (Italy). These data were used to infer the sequence of climatic phases and processes responsible for coastal and marine landscape shaping. Our data show a number of relict submerged surfaces corresponding to distinct phases of erosional/depositional processes triggered by the late-Quaternary interglacial–glacial cycles. In particular, we observed the presence of submerged marine terraces, likely formed during MIS 5–MIS 3 relative highstand phases. These geomorphic features, found at depths of ~26–30, ~34–38, and ~45–56 m, represent important evidence of past sea-level variations.

Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Service Benefits and Welfare Impacts of Offshore Marine Protected Areas: A Study from the Baltic Sea

“…We conclude that limited environmental information and assessments for the offshore marine areas restricts the possibilities of using quantitative attribute levels. Information from geophysical and sedimentological surveys (see Madricardo et al 2019 [73]; De Giosa et al 2019 [74]; Scardino et al 2020 [75]) and more detailed assessment of the ES supply, using the field data, are relevant for solving these limitations.…”

Landscapes and Landforms of Terrestrial and Marine Areas: A Way Forward

“…The outputs of research on Late Quaternary landscape changes are presented, with different approaches, in a number of papers of this Special Issue. Mattei et al [17] supported their research by means of archaeological markers; De Gioiosa et al [24], Deiana et al [27], and Savini et al [26] analyzed terrestrial and marine landforms to reconstruct past sea-level oscillations and paleolandscapes; and Novack et al [25] took advantage of the acoustic characterization of stratigraphic records.…”

“…De Gioiosa et al [24] analyzed LiDAR data, spectral images, and data from onshore surveys and scuba dives, with the aim of depicting land and sea morphologies and reconstructing Late Quaternary environmental changes of the Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area (Apulia, Italy). The authors inferred climatic phases and related morphogenetic processes, identifying evidence of past sea-level oscillations.…”

The Footprints of the Wreckage of the Italian Royal Navy Battleship Leonardo Da Vinci on the Mar Piccolo Sea-Bottom (Taranto, Southern Italy)

“…Among the different works for the wreck recovery, the employment of marine geophysical surveys was a fundamental step in order to plan the sustainable interventions, such as avoiding an oil spill occurrence [15,20], or for the characterization of morphological changes [10,22,23].…”