Fabrizio Lirer

• Geological Science, University Federico II of Naples (Italy)
• Researcher at Italian National Research Council

Calcareous nannofossils are the fossil equivalent of unicellular marine algae whose ecology and vital functions are driven by environmental parameters within the photic zone (e.g. temperature, salinity, sunlight and nutrient supply). High-resolution quantitative analyses were performed on the sediment core ND14Mbis collected in the northeastern par...

The planktonic foraminiferal species Globorotalia truncatulinoides is widely used as a biostratigraphic proxy for the Quaternary in the Mediterranean region. High-resolution quantitative studies performed on sediment cores collected in the central and western Mediterranean Sea evidence a significant abundance of G. truncatulinoides during the Middl...

This study presents the first Late Holocene marine pollen record (core ND2) from SE Sicily. It encompasses the last 3000 years and is one of the most detailed records of the south-central Mediterranean region in terms of time resolution. The combined approach of marine palynology and historical ecology, supported by independent palaeoclimate proxie...

A tephrochronological investigation was carried out at site ND14Q (1013 m of water depth), located in the southern Adriatic Sea, offshore the Gargano promontory. It was drilled in the frame of The NextData Project (www.nextdataproject.it), focused on paleoclimate research. To obtain a composite and well preserved deep marine record, three cores wer...

The Pleistocene Series/Epoch of the Quaternary System/Period has been divided unofficially into three subseries/subepochs since at least the 1870s. On 30th January, 2020, the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences ratified two proposals approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy formalizing: 1) the Lower...

A new marine pollen record from SE Sicily is presented. The pollen study was done at a sub-decadal resolution to assess the role and extent of human impact in driving regional environmental and land cover changes over the last four hundred years. The combination of palaeoecological evidence and historical documents provides a detailed report of the...

A detailed quantitative, statistical and isotopic study on benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the upper Burdigalian - lower Langhian of Malta Island (St. Peter's Pool section) was carried out in order to gain more insights on paleoenvironmental changes that affected the central part of the Mediterranean Basin during the early-middle Miocene. Th...

Planktonic foraminifer oxygen isotopes through MIS 12 were analysed from Ocean Drilling Program Site 977 in the Alboran Sea. After the correction of the sea surface temperature (SST) effect on the δ¹⁸O composition of foraminiferal calcite, the resulting seawater δ¹⁸O (δ¹⁸Ow) was used to reconstruct variations in the δ¹⁸Ow of the Atlantic inflow int...

A high resolution study of calcareous nannofossils has been performed on samples from the Sapropel S1interval deposited in the North Ionian Sea, with the aim to assess the paleoenvironmental changes in the photic zone during this crucial interval in Mediterranean circulation. Calcareous nannofossil data have been integrated with planktonic foramini...

In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the early Holocene was characterized by major climatic and oceanographic changes that led to the formation of the last sapropel (S1) between 10.8 and 6.1 kyr cal. BP. These hydrographic changes might have altered the water exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean sub-basins through the Strait of Sicil...

The middle Miocene is marked by a changeover from a warm climatic period (Miocene Climatic Optimum, ~17-14.7 Ma), to a transitional phase (Middle Miocene Climatic Transition), culminating in a cold stage (Icehouse Mode, ~13.8 Ma). This period is associated with a positive excursion of δ¹³C (“Monterey Excursion”), showing a series of δ¹³C maxima (CM...

Coccolithophores were collected at 21 stations during summer 2016, from coastal and offshore areas of the Central Mediterranean Sea, to describe the ecology of the coccolithophore community integrating information on their abundance, environmental parameters (salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and fluorescence) and oceanographic data. Emilian...

This paper presents the results of a geophysical investigation aimed to illustrate the architecture of the shallow stratigraphic horizons across an area believed to be crossed by a NW-SE trending trascurrent fault called the Lamezia Terme-Catanzaro Fault. In spite of the available information on fault segments and tectonic activity associated with...

Loess is terrestrial, clastic sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It is usually inter-bedded with paleosol horizons, forming loess-paleosol successions (LPS). Due to their characteristics LPS's represent valuable records of climate changes during Pleistocene. The thickest LPS sections in Croatia are in the Baranja region. Stable...

Globorotalia truncatulinoides oscillations have been recorded from different marine sediment cores collected in the central and western Mediterranean Sea. The abundances of this species over the last 500 yrs. demonstrates its potential value as bio-indicator of particular oceanographic condition during the Maunder Minimum (MM) event of the Little I...

High-resolution paleoceanographic reconstruction of surface water properties during the most recent Sapropel event (S1) has been carried out by means of quantitative analyses of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes (δ ¹⁸ O) and XRF elemental data from a 655 m depth core recovered in the North Ionian Sea. Th...

Reconstruction of last millennia Sea Surface Temperature (SST) evolution is challenging due to the difficulty retrieving good resolution marine records and to the several uncertainties in the available proxy tools. In this regard, the Roman Period (1 CE to 500 CE) was particularly relevant in the socio-cultural development of the Mediterranean regi...

The coastal area located in front of the Volturno river estuary (the Gulf of Gaeta, central-eastern Tyrrhenian Sea) was synoptically sampled in seven surveys between June 2012 and October 2014. Vertical profiles of temperature and salinity were acquired on a high-resolution nearly-regular grid in order to describe the spatial and temporal variabili...

A marine sediment core from the western Mediterranean provides a new high-resolution 4500 year record of palaeomagnetic secular variation and relative palaeointensity. In 2013, the 7.1 m C5 core was recovered from the Tyrrhenian Sea as part of the NextData climate data project. The coring site, 15 km offshore from the Volturno river mouth, is well...

Seawater rare earth element (REE) concentrations and Nd isotopic composition (εNd) are increasingly applied as valuable tracers of oceanographic processes such as water mass mixing and lithogenic inputs to seawater. However, their measurements are basically lacking in the Mediterranean Sea water column. This study analyzes 9 seawater stations aroun...

Coastal areas are more and more exposed to the effects of climatic change. Intense local rainfalls increases the frequency of flash floods and/or flow-like subaerial and afterward submarine landslides. The overall phenomenon of flash flood is complex and involves different phases strongly connected: heavy precipitations in a short period of time, s...

Five cores from the southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas were studied for their tephra and cryptotephra content in the 4.4–2.0 ka time interval. The chronological framework for each core was obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating, the occurrence of distinct marker tephra and stratigraphic correlation with adjacent records. Tephrochrono...

An association between climatic conditions and asthma mortality has been widely assumed. However, it is unclear whether climatic variations have a fingerprint on asthma dynamics over long time intervals. The aim of this study is to detect a possible correlation between climatic indices, namely the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Pacific Deca...

Sea surface temperature reconstruction (SST) over the last millennia in the Mediterranean area represent an important challenges to document the possible link of past climate variability on the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. In addition, the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2018) underlines the requirement...

Sapropel 1 (S1) has been reconstructed on core ND14Mbis. Changes in surface water properties were inferred from the ecological interpretation of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages and complemented with stable isotopes (δ18O) data of Globigerinoides ruber white. Deep water properties were reconstructed in base of the geochemical analyses of the U/...

When performing oceanography measurements, it is critical to assess the presence of the noise sources that could affect the measured data and lead to wrong interpretation of the results. This paper report the result of an oceanography survey conducted by ISMAR-CNR, Naples, in the north-eastern marine sector of the Ischia Island and assess the influ...

Abstract New information on palaeoenvironmental conditions over the past ~2700 years in the Central Mediterranean Sea have been acquired through the high-resolution study of calcareous nannofossils preserved in the sediment core SW104-ND14Q recovered in the Southern Adriatic Sea (SAS) at 1013-m water depth. The surface water properties at this open...

The history of vegetation in the Italian peninsula during the last 2000 years was shaped by a complex interplay of several factors, including the history of human societies, changes in land use, and the succession of climate events. In order to disentangle these factors, we present a multidisciplinary record from a marine core collected in the Gulf...

A review of the climatic variability over the last two millennia based on oxygen stable isotopic (δ18OG. ruber) signals from different areas of the Mediterranean Basin (Minorca Basin, central and south Tyrrhenian Sea, Taranto Gulf, south Adriatic Sea and Israel) has been proposed. The correlation of data testifies an almost synchronicity of the ide...

La ricostruzione della temperatura superficiale del mare (SST) degli ultimi millenni nell'area mediterranea rappresenta un'importante sfida per documentare il possibile legame tra la variabilità del clima del passato e l'ascesa e la caduta delle antiche civiltà. Inoltre, nell'ultimo rapporto dell'IPCC (2018), è emersa l'esigenza di valutare i feedb...

A new high-resolution deglacial and Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) reconstruction is presented for the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean), based on Mg/Ca ratios measured in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides. This new record is evaluated by comparison with other Mg/Ca SST records and previously published alkenone SST reconst...

Planktonic foraminifera are widely used for biostratigraphy and correlation of Mediterranean Neogene marine sediments, and are a fundamental component in the astronomical tuning of the Neogene Time Scale. Recent developments in high-resolution studies, focused on the astronomical calibration of cyclically marine sediments cropping out in land-based...

Unraveling the evolution of supradetachment basins developed in the hanging wall of low‐angle detachment faults may be an invaluable tool in reconstructing the tectonic evolution of highly extended terrains. These basins may record major regional tectonic events related to the exhumation of metamorphic core complexes, and the reconstruction of thei...

High-resolution quantitative analyses of the planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils content have been carried out on IODP Leg 342, Hole U1406A (Northwest Atlantic Ocean) in the core interval 10H2–2H4, plotting the abundance distributions of the biostratigraphically and quantitatively most significant species. Qualitative analyses have...

The Contessa Section is a reference section for the early Miocene in the Mediterranean. Along this 36 m thick section 115 samples were collected and analysed for an integrated bio-magnetostratigraphic study through the Scaglia Cinerea and Bisciaro formations. Planktonic foraminifera were analysed semi-quantitatively, while calcareous nannofossils w...

The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review the evidence from sel...

A new high resolution deglacial and Holocene Sea Surface Temperature (SST) reconstruction is presented for the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean), based on Mg/Ca ratios measured in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides. This new record is evaluated by comparison with other Mg/Ca–SST and previously published alkenone–SST reconstructions...

A new high-resolution pollen record, spanning the last five millennia, is presented from the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy), with the aim of verifying if any vegetation change occurred in the central Mediterranean region in relation to specific well-known global and/or regional climate events, including the 4.2 ka event, the Medieval...

The last five millennia, in Europe, have been characterized by an alternation of warm and cool intervals, but the driving mechanism that leads these climatic variations is still uncertain. One of the possible causes of the European climatic variations is the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The planktonic foraminiferal assemblages...

The aim of this study is the reconstruction of the late Pleistocene-Holocene stratigraphy of the Sibari Plain (southern Italy) aimed to obtain information about hydrogeological framework. A multidisciplinary approach combining boreholes data and Electrical Resistivity Tomography, allowed us to recognize three electro-stratigraphic units, which cons...

It is well-known that the Holocene exhibits a millennial-scale climate variability. However, its periodicity, spatio-temporal patterns and underlying processes are not fully deciphered yet. Here we focus on the central and western Mediterranean. We show that recurrent forest declines from the Gulf of Gaeta (central Tyrrhenian Sea) reveal a 1860-yr...

The analyses of water and sediment samples, collected at 24 marine stations in a coastal area (Gulf of Gaeta, central Tyrrhenian Sea) during a three year survey (2012-2014), have improved our knowledge of coccolithophore ecology in the Mediterranean neritic domain. A comparison between the results and the oceanographic data has highlighted the ecol...

Deltaic and shallow marine sediments represent unique natural archives to study the evolution of surface coastal ocean water properties as compared to environmental changes in adjacent continents. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and higher plant biomarker records were generated from the Rhone and Var River deltaic sediments (NW Mediterranean Sea),...

Rationale: The global environment has been facing large changes during the last century, which can also affect respiratory health with increased asthma frequency worldwide. According to McCabe et al. (2014), spatial and temporal variances in multidecadal drought frequency over the contiguous US are attributable to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillat...

Living benthic foraminiferal assemblages were investigated at 22 marine stations in front of the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta, central Tyrrhenian Sea), during 3-years survey (2012–2014). The results were compared with the oceanographic data recorded at the same sites, to highlight the ecology of the main dominant species and the relationship...

The GSSP for the base of the Chattian Stage (Paleogene System, Oligocene Series) is defined at meter level 197 in the Monte Cagnero section, which belongs to the pelagic succession of the Umbria-Marche basin (Urbania, central Italy: 43°38′47.81″N-12°28′03.83″E). This level with an astronomical age of 27.82 Ma coincides with the highest common occur...

Vengono presentati i risultati dell’attività di monitoraggio svolta nel corso del progetto PONa3_00363 I-AMICA (Infrastruttura di Alta tecnologia per il Monitoraggio Integrato Climatico-Ambientale; www.i-amica.it/i-amica/), nell’ambito delle attività relative all’Obiettivo Realizzativo 4.4 (Processi di interfaccia biosfera-idrosfera e funzionalità...

Paleoclimatic data are essential for fingerprinting the climate of the earth before the advent of modern recording instruments. They enable us to recognize past climatic events and predict future trends. Within this framework, a conceptual and logical model was drawn to physically implement a paleoclimatic database named WDB-Paleo that includes the...

Vengono presentati i risultati dell’attività di monitoraggio svolta nel corso del progetto PONa3_00363 I-AMICA (Infrastruttura di Alta tecnologia per il Monitoraggio Integrato Climatico-Ambientale; www.i-amica.it/i-amica/), nell’ambito delle attività relative all’Obiettivo Realizzativo 4.4 (Processi di interfaccia biosfera-idrosfera e funzionalità...

Loess is terrestrial clastic sediment, composed dominantly of silt-sized particles formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. It is usually inter-bedded with palaeosol horizons forming loess-palaeosol successions (LPS). Due to its characteristics loess represents a high quality record of climate changes in the Late Pleistocene. The thickest and...

A crucial task in earthquake hazard assessment is the problem of investigating buried main faults and econdary features to evaluate their seismic hazard potential, because they cannot be easily detected by surface geological analyses. The Lamezia Terme territory, located in the westernmost edge of the Neogene-Quaternary “Catanzaro Trough”, is influ...

The Sibari Plain is located close to the boundary between the Calabrian Arc and the Southern Apennines. During the Holocene, the plain was characterized by the Crati delta building and by the re-activation of the transverse Sybaris Fault Zone (SFZ), a northward dip fault interpreted as an oblique normal-dextral fault zone, 45°N–55°N striking, recog...

A new high resolution pollen, planktonic foraminiferal and oxygen isotopes record from a shallow water marine sedimentary core from the central Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Gaeta) provides information on vegetation and climate changes occurred in the central Mediterranean region during the last 5000 cal. years BP (Margaritelli et al., 2016). Nine tim...

This study presents the reconstructed evolution of sea surface conditions in the central-western Mediterranean Sea during the late Holocene (2700 years) from a set of multi-proxy records as measured on five short sediment cores from two sites north of Minorca (cores MINMC06 and HER-MC-MR3). Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from alkenones and Globige...

Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages were studied at high-resolution in core KC01B from the Ionian Sea. Quantitative analysis allowed us to distinguish the main climatic features and associated paleoceanographic changes, that occurred between Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 13 and 9 (~500–300 ka). MIS 12 and MIS 10 are characterized by relatively temp...

Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages were studied at high-resolution in core KC01B from the Ionian Sea. Quantitative analysis allowed us to distinguish the main climatic features and associated paleoceanographic changes, that occurred between Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 13 and 9 (~500-300 ka).MIS 12 and MIS 10 are characterized by relatively tempe...

The most recent data obtained at the Montalbano Jonico succession (MJS), in the interval including the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 19, document the occurrence of numerous chronostratigraphic constraints and paleoenvironmental events contributing to the knowledge of a crucial time through the Lower-Middle Pleistocene transition, characterised by majo...

Sea state knowledge has a key role in evaluation of coastal erosion, the assessment of vulnerability and potential in coastal zone utilization, and development of numerical models to predict its evolution. X-band radar measurements were conducted to observe the spatial and temporal variation of the sea-state parameters along a 3 km long sandy-grave...

This study analyses the evolution of sea surface conditions during the last 2700 years in the central-western Mediterranean Sea based on six records as measured on five short sediment cores from two sites north of Minorca (cores MINMC06 and HER-MC-MR3). Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) were obtained from alkenones and Globigerina bulloides-Mg/Ca rat...

Beach environments have a relevant value related to their ecological and economic (e.g. touristic) features. Many of the world's major cities are located in coastal areas; therefore, the increasing of the erosional phenomena due to anthropogenic impact makes necessary to track shallow geology and to collect data on land-marine transition zone. Duri...

The aim of this study (realized during “SIGIEC” PON Project, http://www.sigiec.sister.it) is to understand and determine the main components of coastal dynamics and to deduce information about the bathymetry of the surf zone through the use of X-Band Wave Radar system (developed by Remocean©) in Calabria and Apulia Region (southern Italy) for coast...

In this paper we report new stratigraphic data related to a new geological map of the Miocene Gorgoglione Basin of southern Italy, traditionally considered as a piggy-back or wedge-top basin filled by a turbidite-like succession. Well exposed outcrops in the study area (eastern sector of the basin) show four unconformities in the Castelmezzano-Piet...

Recent studies demonstrated that the Mediterranean continental shelf and, especially, the delta areas provide one of the most complete archive for monitoring the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic changes occurring in the last millennia. This work based on marine paleo proxies is aimed at documenting high-resolution time-series (decadal to cent...

A new high resolution pollen and planktonic foraminiferal record from a shallow water coastal marine core (water depth 83 meters) collected in the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy), provides information on the complex relations among natural vegetation development, climate changes, and human impact on ecosystems in an historically dense...

A new high resolution pollen and planktonic foraminiferal record from a shallow water coastal marine core (water depth 83 meters) collected in the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy), provides information on the complex relations among natural vegetation development, climate changes, and human impact on ecosystems in an historically dense...

During the last decade, the interaction of deep processes in the lithosphere and mantle with surface processes (erosion, climate, sea-level, subsidence, glacio-isostatic readjustment) has been the subject of heated discussion. The use of a multidisciplinary approach linking geology, geophysics, geodesy, modelling, and geotechnology has led to the a...

Quantitative analyses on pollen and ostracods were performed on the Montalbano Jonico succession (MJS) through Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 18–21 in order to acquire details of paleoenvironmental changes and climate pattern during MIS 19, which includes the Matuyama–Brunhes paleomagnetic boundary (MBB). While the MJS does not record the MBB, which i...

Paleoclimatic records have demonstrated the high sensibility of north-western Mediterranean Sea to rapid climate changes of the last glacial period, supporting the existence of a strong relation between the North Atlantic climate and the Mediterranean. Contrary to that, this information about Holocene is comparatively scarce. We have analysed four...

A new high resolution pollen and planktonic foraminiferal record from a shallow water coastal marine core (water depth 83 meters) collected in the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy), provides information on the complex relations among natural vegetation development, climate changes, and human impact on ecosystems in an historically dens...