Palynological approach to pastoral activities reconstruction in S Italy: a palaeoecological contribution to support biodiversity awareness

In circum-Mediterranean countries, human impact had a great influence and generated impressive patterns of landscape complexity (Butzer 2005; Mercuri 2014). The study of paleoenvironmental records has fundamental importance for understanding the present-day biodiversity and to define a new approach to the planning for sustainable human-environment interactions in the central Mediterranean area. The combined evidence of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs-NPPs from archaeological records has been especially useful in reconstructing the complexity of landscape transformations that occurred in these lands, continuously exploited for cultivations and pastures. This research deals with palynological approach to reconstruct farming activities in Southern Italy, focusing on pasture indicators allowing the identification of pasture farming and its role in the landscape transformation of this Mediterranean region. ... This research points to the impressive role that pastoralism has had as agent of shaping the Mediterranean landscape in the last 3 thousand years. The palynological data improve knowledge and awareness about biodiversity and the long-term human impact in modern landscapes of Southern Italy.