The usefulness of Archaeopalynological data for the study of Plant Biodiversity: from BRAIN to the LifeWatch Italy Data Portal

The landscape sees plant biodiversity as one of its most important features. The archaeobotanical study of pollen from archaeological contexts has proven to be one of the most valuable approaches for the understanding of the landscape structure (e.g., land cover type) and evolution (diachronic transformations under human impact and environmental factors) based on detailed morphological analysis and careful interdisciplinary interpretation. In Italy, the large amount of archaeobotanical studies in the different regions and for Holocene chronologies has been collected in the BRAIN database which, by the end of 2024, includes metadata of about 900 sites and 1000 bibliographic citations (Mercuri et al. 2024: Holocene archaeo-data for assessing plant-cultural diversity in Italy and other Mediterranean region. Scientific Data 11, 520; https://brainplants.successoterra.net/). Notably, palynological data offer considerable detail that is relevant in archaeological, conservation and ecological research fields. For this reason, the floristic lists – which in BRAIN are linked to archaeological sites – have been structured and harmonised to be published in a dedicated sub-portal hosted in the LifeWatch Italy Data Portal, a resource for managing and sharing biodiversity and ecosystem data following the principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability. The LifeWatch Italy Data Portal exposes data and metadata using worldwide accepted standards (DarwinCore, EML 2.2.0 schema), facilitating further reuse of the BRAIN database. The BRAIN diachronic floristic lists support the scientific community of archaeologists and scholars involved in biodiversity and ecosystem research to monitor changes in the composition of the local flora and to reconstruct the mid- and late Holocene plants dynamics under anthropic and natural pressure. Changes in vegetation cover clearly testify to the millennia of human activities that transformed natural into cultural landscapes in which we live and which we are asked to preserve.