Mauro Guglielmin

Università degli Studi dell'Insubria | UNINSUBRIA · Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences

In this study we integrated different techniques, spanning from Ground Penetrating Radar to geomorphological and photogrammetric data, to characterize the glacial and proglacial environments of the Sforzellina Glacier (Central Alps, Italy). Direct data highlighted the presence of debris-covered ice and even of dead ice patches in front of the actua...

Here, we present the results related to a new unique terrestrial ecosystem found in an englacial hypersaline brine found in Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica). Both the geochemistry and microbial (prokaryotic and fungal) diversity revealed an unicity with respect to all the other known Antarctic brines and suggested a probable ancient origin mainl...

The evaporation of a localized, highly saline water body of the Boulder Clay debris-covered glacier, in the Northern Victoria Land, probably generated the accumulation of mirabilite (Na2SO4 × 10H2O) and thenardite (Na2SO4) in a glacier salt-cone. Such an extremely cold and salty environment resembles the conditions on Mars, so it can be considered...

The permafrost-based geomorphological map of the Mt. Foscagno - Mt Forcellina ridge (Central Italian Alps) shows the distribution of permafrost probability (high, medium, low probability, and probable absence) obtained by the application of PERMACLIM (Guglielmin et al., 2003), a GIS-based model integrating Digital Elevation Model (DEM) topographic...

The results of a combined geophysical and geomorphological investigation of thermal‐contraction‐crack polygons near Gondwana station (Germany) in northern Victoria Land (Antarctica) are reported. An area of about 20,000 m2 characterized by random orthogonal polygons was investigated using integrated ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity...

The impact of global warming on biological communities colonizing European alpine ecosystems was recently studied. Hexagonal open top chambers (OTCs) were used for simulating a short‐term in situ warming (estimated around 1°C) in some alpine soils to predict the impact of ongoing climate change on resident microbial communities. Total microbial DNA...

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...

Despite the increase of sparse debris on many glaciers in the world and its undisputed impact on glacier ablation, both its evolution and its detailed effect have been poorly investigated yet. In this study we evaluated the evolution of the sparse debris cover during the ablation season at two small glaciers of the Ortles-Cevedale group (Central It...

The strong air temperature warming between the 1950s and 2016 in the Antarctic Peninsula region¹ exceeded the global average warming²,³ with evident impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and the two native Antarctic vascular plants Deschampsia antarctica Desv. and Colobanthus quitensis (Kunth) Bartl.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Subsequently, a short but intens...

In this paper we used ground-based thermal infrared imaging to investigate the spatial variability of surface temperatures on a mountain glacier at high spatial resolution and to estimate the supraglacial debris thickness distribution. The surveyed area is the eastern tongue of Gran Zebrù glacier, a small mountain glacier of the Ortles-Cevedale gro...

Shrub encroachment, a globally recognized response to climate warming, usually involves late successional species in mountain environments, without alteration to climax communities. We show that a major ecosystem change is occurring in the European Alps across a 1000 m elevation gradient, with pioneer hygrophilous Salix shrubs, previously typical o...

Snow cover changes can have important effects on ecosystems, especially where spatial variability in cover is high, influencing the biogeochemical conditions of the underlying soil as well as the vegetation. In this study, snow thickness and areal distribution were monitored using a time lapse camera over a grid of 15 × 20 m between 2009 and 2017 a...

Podzols developed on glacial and periglacial features provide the opportunity to reconstruct permafrost past limits and related paleoclimatic variations using micromorphological analysis. Analyzing 10 thin sections on 8 soils classified as Podzol in two study areas in the Central Italian Alps (Stelvio Pass area and Val Cantone area), we have been a...

In GPR profiles, ice is usually imaged as a mostly electromagnetic transparent facies. However, diffraction events, as well as internal layering, can be also observed. In some cases, the bedrock below glaciers is masked by dense diffractions usually interpreted as the effect of liquid water pockets inside the so-called warm ice. However, the actual...

The impact of climate change in the European Alps has been roughly twice the global average, dramatically reducing permafrost extent and thickening of its active layer. Therefore, the study of the abiotic factors (i.e. chemical/physical parameters) affecting the microbial diversity inhabiting Alpine permafrost appears to be of dramatic relevance. W...

Different polar environments (lakes and glaciers), also in Antarctica, encapsulate brine pools characterized by a unique combination of extreme conditions, mainly in terms of high salinity and low temperature. Since 2014, we have been focusing our attention on the microbiology of brine pockets from three lakes in the Northern Victoria Land (NVL), l...

Antarctica is the last pristine environment on Earth, its biota being adapted to the harsh and extreme polar climate. Until now, soil formation and vegetation development in continental Antarctica were considered very slow due to the extreme conditions of this polar desert. Since the austral summer 2002/2003, a long-term monitoring network of the t...

During summer 2014, three hypersaline brines were discovered in two frozen lakes of Boulder Clay (Northern Victoria Valley, Antarctica). Ongoing research seeks to gain novel insights on the microbial ecology of such environments, in order to further the understanding of life adaptation to extreme conditions. To this aim, the abundance of prokaryoti...

Knowledge about deglaciation after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the mountain areas of the European Alps is still limited. In this study, we used Schmidt Hammer R-values (SH) and Crystallinity Ratio (CRF) indices of soils, together with historical data, to outline the glacial evolution of the Forni Glacier the biggest Italian glacier until some...

Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...

The genomic diversity of bacteria and archaea in brines (BC1, BC2, and BC3) from two adjacent and perennially frozen Antarctic lakes (L16 and L-2) in the Boulder Clay (BC) area was investigated together with the metabolically active fraction of both communities, by analyzing the bulk rRNA as a general marker of metabolic activity. Although similar...

: Remote sensing can be helpful in defining the dynamic of a high-latitude coastal environment where the role of cryogenic processes like sea-ice or permafrost are the main drivers together with storm surge and wind action. Here we examined the geomorphological dynamics of a beach located at Edmonson Point (74° S) not far from the Italian Antarctic...

Remote sensing, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in particular, can be a valid tool for assessing the dynamics of cryotic features as frost blisters and to monitor the surface changes and the sublimation rates on perennially frozen lakes that host important ecosystems. In this paper, through the use of these remote sensing techniques, we aim to...

Thermokarst depressions are widespread phenomena due to permafrost degradation in the Arctic, whereas only few are known from mountain permafrost of the mid‐latitudes. In the Italian Central Alps, close to the Stelvio Pass (2,763 m above sea level), a ski run was built in 1987. Since 1981, statistically significant air warming has been recorded, es...

GPR is one of the most applicable geophysical techniques to detect brines at shallow depths due to their peculiar electromagnetic characteristics, in particular related to overall high electrical conductivity. However, the range of chemical and physical parameters of brines is very wide and can change with time, thus making their imaging and charac...

We exploit the attribute analysis of GPR data to analyze the different EM responses of the ice of two alpine glaciers. We focus on frequency-related attributes to identify zones with higher attenuation of EM signal, which could be further related to higher water content and higher electrical conductivity. We succeeded in associating the scattering...

Cavernous weathering (tafoni) is described from coarse-grained granitic bedrock in Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica), northern Sardinia (Italy) and southwestern Australia. It also occurs elsewhere in the world and on other coarse-grained lithologies. The cause of this unusual in-situ flaking and granular disintegration is problematic. Azonal cond...

Extremophiles are optimal models in experimentally addressing questions about the effects of cosmic radiation on biological systems. The resistance to high charge energy (HZE) particles, and helium (He) ions and iron (Fe) ions (LET at 2.2 and 200 keV/µm, respectively, until 1000 Gy), of spores from two thermophiles, Bacillus horneckiae SBP3 and Bac...

Tafoni are one of the most interesting weathering features developed in many areas of the world from tropical areas to polar ones such as Antarctica. Here, we present the results on 4 tafoni in similar conditions (aspect, slope, distance from the sea, elevation) and in the same granite close to the Italian Antarctic station at Mario Zucchelli Stati...

Current analyses and predictions of spatially‐explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long‐term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate‐forcing factors that operate at fine spatiote...

This paper reviews and analyses the past 20 years of change and variability of European mountain permafrost in response to climate change based on time series of ground temperatures along a south–north transect of deep boreholes from Sierra Nevada in Spain (37°N) to Svalbard (78°N), established between 1998 and 2000 during the EU-funded PACE (Perma...

Podzols that have developed on glacial and periglacial features provide the opportunity to reconstruct glacial evolution after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using different soil indices. Analysing 17 soils classified as podzol, we used the crystallinity ratio of free iron oxides (CRF) on both the A and Bs horizons, and absolute ages for the same l...

Despite the ongoing development of cosmogenic techniques to reconstruct deglaciation and glacial advances, these techniques are not always feasible for logistical and economic reasons. In this study, we used Schmidt Hammer R-values (SH) and Crystallinity Ratio (CRF) indices of soils, together with a limited number of absolute ¹⁴C dates, to outline...

Landscape evolution is occurring at rapid rates in alpine areas in response to recent climate warming, also due to the susceptibility and the heterogeneity of these environments. Here we present a prediction model of surface displacements that takes into account both topographic and climatic variables. Observed points of surficial displacements hav...

Ground surface temperature (GST) and active layer thickness (ALT) are key indicators of climate change (CC) in permafrost regions, with their relationships with climate and vegetation being crucial for the understanding of future climate change scenarios, as well as of CC feedbacks on the carbon cycle and water balance. Antarctic ice free-areas hos...

A perennially frozen lake at Boulder Clay site (Victoria Land, Antarctica), characterized by the presence of frost mounds, have been selected as an in‐situ model for ecological studies. Different samples of permafrost, glacier ice and brines have been studied as a unique habitat system. An additional sample of brines (collected in another frozen la...

The diversity and biotechnological potentialities of bacterial isolates from brines of three Antarctic lakes of the Northern Victoria Land (namely Boulder Clay and Tarn Flat areas) were first explored. Cultivable bacterial communities were analysed mainly in terms of bacterial response to contaminants (i.e., antibiotics and heavy metals) and oxidat...

The deglaciation of the Italian Central Alps is still discussed and not well known, especially when we consider the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene. This study will use different fraction of the iron content of paleo-spodosols to date the time of the deglaciation of three areas in the Central Italian Alps (Gavia, Stelvio and Val Viola). Relying on...

Current analyses and predictions of spatially‐explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long‐term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate‐forcing factors that operate at fine spatiote...

This report follows up on the report published in the SESS Report 2018 (Christiansen et al. 2019). Since 2018, the Norwegian Environment Agency has released the Climate in Svalbard 2100 report summarizing observed trends in permafrost conditions over the period of field measurements and a forecast for the future, based on recent climate and permafr...

In the ice-free environments of Antarctica, periglacial conditions occur everywhere and almost everywhere permafrost occur. Therefore, in Antarctica, more than elsewhere, the knowledge of the different periglacial and climate processes and related landforms is essential also for the conservation and the correct management of the ice-free areas and...

p>In continental Antarctica, autotrophs are exclusively represented by cyanobacteria, algae, lichens and mosses. Consequently, Antarctic soil communities are expected to be rather simple and primarily dominated by microorganisms. Recently, a change in abundance of mosses and lichens has been observed in continental Antarctica in response to an incr...

Two distinct pressurized hypersaline brine pockets (named TF4 and TF5), separated by a thin ice layer, were detected below an ice-sealed Antarctic lake. Prokaryotic (bacterial and archaeal) diversity, abundances (including virus-like particles) and metabolic profiles were investigated by an integrated approach, including traditional and new-generat...

Bedrock surfaces in Antarctica frequently exhibit weathering patterns such as weathering pits, tafoni, and weathering rinds, but there are multiple hypotheses to explain the formation of these features. This study will quantify bedrock erosion rates with cosmogenic nuclides to determine if differences in subaerial erosion rates can help explain the...

Among the different elements of the mountain cryosphere, ice caves still represent the lesser known part of it. Here we present a seven-year-long record of air and rock temperature in a cave of the southeastern European Alps. We demonstrate how the presence of a permanent ice deposit in the cave is not only related to the net cooling effect of the...

The Sommeiller Pass permafrost monitoring station, at about 3000 m of altitude, is the key site of the regional network installed in 2009 during the European Project PermaNET in the Piedmont Alps (NW Italy). The station consists of 3 vertical boreholes 5, 10 and 100 m deep with different characteristics, equipped with thermometric chains for a tota...

Terrestrial Arctic ecosystems play a key role in the global carbon (C) cycle, as they store a large amount of organic matter in permafrost. Among regions with continuous permafrost, Svalbard has one of the warmest permafrost and may provide a template of the environmental responses of Arctic regions to future climate change. We analyze the CO2 flux...

The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) constitutes the warmest region of Antarctica, although 98% of the surface is still covered by glaciers. The region shows contrasting geographic and climatic properties, which have conditioned past and present glacial activity. This paper constitutes a review of the spatial and temporal patterns of paraglacial activity a...

File freely downoaldabel for 50 days here https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1YYWR,3sl3j7BF The distribution of rock glaciers is often used to investigate the occurrence of permafrost in mountain areas and to understand their climate and paleoclimate evolution. This requires the creation of regional and global inventories capable of discriminating act...

Permafrost warming has the potential to amplify global climate change, because when frozen sediments thaw it unlocks soil organic carbon. Yet to date, no globally consistent assessment of permafrost temperature change has been compiled. Here we use a global data set of permafrost temperature time series from the Global Terrestrial Network for Perma...

Here we present the results of the inversion of a multi-annual temperature profile (2013, 2014, 2015) of the deepest borehole (235 m) in the mountain permafrost of the world located close to Stelvio Pass in the Central Italian Alps. The SHARE STELVIO Borehole (SSB) has been monitored since 2010 with 13 thermistors placed at different depths between...

The relatively warm climate conditions prevailing today in the Mediterranean region limit cold geomorphological processes only to the highest mountain environments. However, climate variability during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene has led to significant spatio-temporal variations of the glacial and periglacial domain in these mountains, includi...

This study was aimed at gaining insights on the prokaryotic community (in terms of both taxonomic composition and activities) inhabiting the active layer at Edmonson Point, an ice-free area on the eastern slope at the foot of Mount Melbourne (Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica). Samples were collected during the thawing period, when microbial physi...

Needle ice growth is one of the more widespread and easily visible, but less studied, climate related processes shaping soil evolution, surface dynamics and ecosystem changes in the alpine environments. Here, we show the results of the monitoring of needle ice development at four plots located at 2670 m a.s.l. close to the Stelvio Pass in the Itali...

Brines are hypersaline solutions which have been found within the Antarctic permafrost from the Tarn Flat area (Northern Victoria Land). Here, an investigation on the possible presence and diversity of fungal life within those peculiar ecosystems has been carried out for the first time. Brines samples were collected at 4- and 5-meter depths (TF1 an...

Monitoring of active layer thawing depth and active layer thickness (ALT), using mechanical pronging and continuous temperature data logging, has been undertaken under the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring – South (CALM-S) program at a range of sites across Antarctica. The objective of this study was to summarize key data from sites in different...

This study will compare the spectral reflectance patterns from bedrock samples in Antarctica to their measured erosion rates determined from cosmogenic nuclides. In the cold and hyperarid climate of Antarctica, we expect that low erosion rates allow for the development of oxidation weathering surfaces. We have 11 samples of granite and 2 samples of...

The Val Viola Pass is a transboundary area between Italy (Val Viola Bormina) and Switzerland (Val da Camp), whose evolution has been triggered, since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), by intense reactivation of surface processes. Geomorphological mapping at a scale of 1:5000 provided an understanding of the deglaciation dynamics affecting this region...

In extensively glaciarized permafrost areas such as Northern Victoria Land, rock glaciers are quite common and are considered postglacial cryotic landforms. This paper reveals that two rock glaciers in Northern Victoria Land (at Adélie Cove and Strandline) that are located close to the Italian Antarctic Station (Mario Zucchelli Station) should have...

Cryptobiosis is a reversible ametabolic state of life characterized by the ceasing of all metabolic processes, allowing survival of periods of intense adverse conditions. Here we show that 1) entire moss individuals, dated by ¹⁴C, survived through cryptobiosis during six centuries of cold-based glacier burial in Antarctica, 2) after re-exposure due...

Study of the microbial assemblage (abundance and activity) living in the brines of two Antarctic frozen lakes (Boulder Clay, Northern Victoria Land).

A layer of coarse cryogenic cave carbonate (CCCcoarse) is documented within a subsurface ice outcrop (in-situ) in a cave of the Julian Alps (southeastern Alps). This original finding, representing the first alpine evidence of in-situ CCCcoarse and the first occurrence from the southern side of the Alps, provides a unique opportunity to better under...