Luca Trombino

University of Milan | UNIMI · Department of Earth Sciences "Ardito Desio"

The conditions of the burial environment trigger microstructural modifications and physical‐chemical changes in the bone, such as chemical dissolution, increase of crystallinity, chemical exchanges, collagen degradation and changes in porosity, hence to reproduce these patterns is a challenging task. This work presents a new method to accelerate th...

The soil is a component of geodiversity, a geoheritage element providing knowledge of how the geosphere works and interacts with other Earth subsystems. To promote soil as a geoheritage element, we aim to create a geotouristic trail focused on soil, geomorphology, and geoarcheology in the area of Mt. Cusna (Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, No...

This work is concerned with a multi-analytical identification of the colour palette utilised in the decoration of the cover of an Egyptian sarcophagus dated to the Late Dynastic Period and belonging to a private collection. In this study, six different points were analysed with a portable Raman spectrometer; then, in these same points, six micro-fr...

The permanence of a buried body in soil always induces the formation of a decomposition island that can serve as a significant recording location to understand how the persistence of a clandestine grave affects soil. This study aims to analyze the elemental exchange from buried bodies to soil, with a focus on phosphorus content, and to determine th...

Soil is a component of geodiversity and, for its scientific value, can also be a component of geoheritage, playing a role in reconstructing the environmental evolution of an area. This assumption will be examined here with special reference to mountain environments, where the high variability of soil forming-factors is responsible for a great varie...

Phosphorus recovery from digestate is considered a challenge because the possible discharge can lead to eutrophication. This study focuses on phosphorus recovery as struvite from the liquid fraction of swine manure digestate at a high total solids concentration, by using a lab-scale crystallizer operated in continuous mode (7 L·d−1). A by-product o...

The pedogenesis from the mineral substrate released upon glacier melting has been explained with the succession of consortia of pioneer microorganisms, whose structure and functionality are determined by the environmental conditions developing in the moraine. However, the microbiome variability that can be expected in the environmentally heterogene...

In high-altitude environments, most of the debris-free glacier forelands are increasingly widening and the bare surfaces left by retreating glaciers offer the opportunity to investigate the evolution of soil through time. The main aim of this study is to discuss the applicability of a chronosequence approach in a deglaciated area, by considering th...

A soil, classified as Arenosol (Eutri-Aridic Arenosol (Calcaric)), located in Neffatia (Tunisia) and populated by the shrub tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla), was studied to assess how the litter deriving from tamarisk can affect its characteristics. Several parameters were considered: particle size distributions (PSD), pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC),...

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...

This open access atlas is an up-to-date visual resource on the features and structures observed in soil thin sections, i.e. soil micromorphology. The book addresses the growing interest in soil micromorphology in the fields of soil science, earth science, archaeology and forensic science, and serves as a reference tool for researchers and students...

Climate change has a huge impact on alpine environments. In high altitude environments, one of its most visible effects is glaciers retreat, which causes the progressive exposure of previously glaciated surfaces, where weathering processes promote soil formation. These areas are open-air laboratories where, substituting space for time, the effect o...

Poster presented at BeGeo Scientists 2021 - A Young Network, Naples, Italy.

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of high concentrations (10 % w/w, data projected for 2030) of commercial bioplastics, i.e. starch based shopping bags (SBSB) and polylactic acid (PLA) tableware, in the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) on compost quality obtained by pilot-scale dry mesophilic anaerobic digestion and sub...

From a historical point of view, soil micromorphology was first used in order to decipher the expressions of pedogenic processes at the microscale (Kubiëna 1938). In the preceding chapters, the Atlas listed a series of descriptive tools to help with the identification of objects. This chapter deals with specific pedofeatures encountered in a large...

Kubiëna (1938) was the first to introduce the concept of fabric in soil micromorphology, so this term has been used in soil micromorphology for a long time. The term “fabric” was initially applied to rocks by geologists and petrologists. This type of fabric is defined as the “factor of the texture of a crystalline rock which depends on the relative...

The advancement of technology opens up new opportunities to soil micromorphology. Although a description using an optical microscope of the fabric and the various constituents of soils will be always necessary to investigate soil evolution, the uncovered thin section leaves soil material on which analyses can be performed. Since the 1970s, it was p...

As emphasized by W. Kubiëna, “… there exists no other method capable of revealing the nature and complexity of soil polygenesis in so much detail as thin-section micromorphology and at the same time enabling one to follow and explain its formation...”. This sentence, cited by Fedoroff (1971), highlights the aim of soil micromorphology: looking at a...

As stipulated by G. Stoops, “the aim of micropedology is to contribute to solving problems related to the genesis, classification and management of soils, including soil characterization in palaeopedology and archaeology. The interpretation of features observed in thin sections is the most important part of this type of research, based on an object...

Mineral and organic constituents belong to the basic components observed in soil thin sections. They can appear, for instance, as large rock fragments, or single minerals as sand grains; they can constitute large areas of micromass formed by clay minerals or display parts of plant roots or leaf fragments, i.e. organic material. These constituents c...

Both biotic and abiotic components, characterizing the mountain treeline ecotone, respond differently to climate variations. This study aims at reconstructing climate-driven changes by analyzing soil evolution in the late Holocene and by assessing the climatic trends for the last centuries and years in a key high-altitude climatic treeline (2515 m...

Partially or totally skeletonized bodies are undoubtedly the most challenging scenario to deal with for forensic pathologists and anthropologists. Indeed, in such cases, being able to figure out the cause and manner of death is often tricky. Human remains require to be washed and cleaned before a thorough assessment of any signs of trauma. However,...

Complex sequences of paleosols are often formed by the interaction between pedogenesis and geomorphological evolution. Their study, particularly in mountain areas, is useful to reconstruct past environmental conditions as well as climate shifts, and to gather information on the morphodynamical processes affecting the landscape through time. Since t...

The soil formation, its development, and its preservation in high mountain environments are largely determined by topography and geomorphological dynamic. Therefore, soil development in alpine areas is often non-linear over time, and characterized by phases of progressive and regressive evolution. The interaction among soil-forming factors is prese...

The major difficulty to study bone preservation is to define which diagenetic parameters need to be taken into account when any information on environmental conditions is missing. Through this research, we contribute towards understanding the complex interplay of factors that affects human bones during diagenetic process. The work focuses on how or...

In the Northern Apennines the effects of the Little Ice Age (LIA) on the mountain landscape are poorly known. A pedosedimentary sequence on the northern slope of Mt. Cusna (Tuscan-Aemilian Apennines) and its geomorphological setting were investigated in order to assess the influence of the LIA on the soils and the geomorphological processes. The up...

On May 2, 2008, the Chaitén volcano, located in Chilean Patagonia, thought to be inactive for almost 10,000 years, erupted, emitting pyroclastic materials (ash and pumice) of rhyolitic composition. The ejected materials partially burned the forest vegetation in a wide radius, blocked the river systems, causing local flooding, and forced the majorit...

Denudation processes affecting mountain slopes may vary according to different factors (e.g., lithology and structural setting of bedrock, climate, relief features), which may be very diverse at the local scale. Gully complex systems, characterised by morphological features similar to those developing in other climate contexts (i.e., pseudo-badland...

High mountain environments are peculiarly vulnerable and sensible to change, especially when human pressure on natural resources is high. These landscapes are highly resilient but respond to external impact with fast and intense fluctuations: in such cases the contemporary combination of both natural and anthropogenic factors is at times able to fo...

The Mt. Cusna ridge, located in the Northern Apennines (North Italy), is a mountain area of relevant geological interest for the interaction through time of distinct geomorphic processes, acting since the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. A geomorphological map at the 1:10,000 scale was produced to characterise the main landforms and processes ident...

This work aimed to test both energy production and the recovering of phosphorus from high solid content digestate by coupling microbial electrochemical technologies (MET) with a crystallization process. Digestate coming from an anaerobic digester was used as the feeding substrate for a Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) and a Microbial Electrolysis cell (ME...

The interactions among Quaternary (paleo-) soil-forming, erosion, re-deposition and geomorphic processes at the origin of the present-day landscape are discussed at three isolated tectonic reliefs of the Southern Po Foredeep Basin of Lombardy (San Colombano, Casalpusterlengo and Zorlesco reliefs, Italy). These sites offer the possibility to combine...

Upper Pleistocene (MIS 4-2) loess sequences occur in most of continental Europe and in Northern Italy along the Po Plain Loess Basin. Loess is distributed along the flanks of the Po Plain and was deposited on glacial deposits, fluvial terraces, uplifted isolated hills, karst plateaus, slopes and basins of secondary valleys. Loess bodies are general...

This paper presents the results of the geoarchaeological study of a medieval motte known in historical documents as “Castrum Popilii” (Poviglio, Northern Italy). The Castrum Popilii motte, for its particular environmental characteristics, represents an exceptional case study for the Early Medieval Age in Po Valley. In 1989 an archaeological rescue...

The recent geological, geomorphological, pedological and structural surveys performed at the San Colombano tectonic relief document a Late Quaternary tectonic activity of the structure, located at the Po Plain-Northern Apennine border in Lombardy (Italy). The new maps, corroborated with (palaeo-) geopedological analyses, allow to unravel the compos...

This paper presents the results of the geoarchaeological study of the stratigraphic sequence exposed during excavations in the historical center of the village of Poviglio (Emilia Romagna, N Italy), located in the vicinity of the Po river. The area, also referred to as “Santo Stefano di Poviglio”, revealed an exceptionally well-preserved Anthropoge...

Loess deposits have been described in the past for the upper section of Buca Dei Corvi succession (Central Italy). In this paper the deposits were re-analysed to clarify the depositional environment and to attempt a paleoclimate reconstruction. Two radiocarbon dates on pedogenic carbonate constrain the ages to the Late Glacial, and are consistent w...

Although altitudinal treelines are generally influenced by climatic conditions, geomorphological processes and human activities can locally limit the treeline position, conditioning its altitude and dynamics. In fact, in mountain regions, tree establishment and growth at the highest altitudes may be greatly affected by geomorphological processes an...

A buried body not only determines an environmental response at the deposition site but it is also affected by the soil. The experiment was performed using eleven swine carcasses buried in an open site (Northern Italy). Changes occurring in bone tissue at different post-burial intervals were evaluated observing thin sections of bones through micromo...

Although altitudinal treelines are generally influenced by climatic conditions, geomorphological processes and human activities can locally limit the treeline position, conditioning its altitude and dynamics. In fact, in mountain regions, tree establishment and growth at the highest altitudes may be greatly affected by geomorphological processes an...

In order to perform anthropological diagnoses, such as PMI, identification or merely the presence of taphonomical insults, the state of preservation of bone, from macroscopic to microscopic and biomolecular, is very important. Sometimes however bad preservation on the outside of bone does not necessarily implicate bad microscopic or biochemical pre...

Purpose The petroplinthic horizon is a layer of indurated material in which Fe is an important cement, and it pertains to the pedogenetic material called “laterite”. The aim of this paper is to document the evolution of a coastal pedosedimentary sequence that developed in NW Italy during the Quaternary and discuss the genesis of its petroplinthic h...

Anthropologists are frequently required to date human bone remains, in order to recognize if osteological samples have an archaeological, historic or forensic interest. The determination of post mortem interval (PMI), the time elapsed between the death and the discovery of the corpse or skeletal remains, is extremely difficult to evaluate, since bo...

After attending this presentation, attendees will understand that the taphonomical evaluation of skeletal remains cannot be limited to the macroscopic aspect but must take into account microscopic and chemical alterations since these may react differently. This presentation will impact the forensic community and/or humanity showing how information...

Glacier history can be reconstructed thanks to geomorphological documentation of previous advances, dating of glacial deposits, and investigation of buried soils and included organic material, which may be linked to vegetation dynamics. A buried log was retrieved at 2,385 m a.s.l. on the northeast-facing slope of the upper Forni Valley (Italian Alp...

Here we present, for the first time in the Po Plain foredeep (N Italy), the Middle-to-Late Pleistocene growth history of an outcropping secondary fold and related faults, whose progressive deformation over an intermediate time window (105 yrs) is driven by an underlying seismogenic blind thrust. We trenched and logged an outcropping decametric seco...

Purpose At the northern fringe of the Po Plain (northern Italy), several isolated hills exist, corresponding to the top of Late Quaternary anticlines. These hills were thoroughly surveyed for their soils and surficial geology, furnishing detailed archives of the palaeoenvironmental evolution of the area. A new, thick and complex loess-paleosol sequ...

This research is a part of a broader paleopedological investigation aimed at characterising and verifying the extent of the permafrost zone during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Ligurian Alps. The paper presents the results of a micromorphological study of a palaeosol located at an elevation of 650 m a.s.l., near a blockstream deposit on Bei...

The aim of this work is to investigate paleoenvironment at treeline quotas through the help of soil micromorphology. It also assesses how the micromorphological approach can provide information in paleoenvironmental studies where paleosols are available as proxy archives. Nine soil profiles are described across the treeline, between 1723 and 1860 m...

The study of Holocene paleosols can be difficult in many cases, since soil features are usually much less expressed than in older paleosols and the ability to detect single genetic phases is much impaired. Frost action, a key diagnostic feature in past climate reconstructions, is not exempt to this rule, and can sometimes remain undetected at the m...

The main objectives of this study were to characterize the micromorphological and mineralogical properties of the two plinthitic paleosols and to deduce their formation processes in relation to the geomorphological position. T h e first described paleosol is located on High Plain of Manie and shows morphological characteristics comparable to pre- s...

Climate variations during the Holocene are a strong constraint to soil development. Long-scale shifts in temperature and precipitations can alter the environmental framework of pedogenesis and produce complex sequences, which can be problematic to understand. In this situation, a valuable help comes from soil micromorphology, since its resolution a...

The role played by soil scientists in the modern forensic science is very real and important, above all in the crime scenes when buried remains, both strongly decomposed or skeletal, are found. Thanks to a PhD project on Forensic Geopedology, an interdisciplinary team of the Universities of Milano and Milano Bicocca, has been working for the last f...

In the area of the Po Plain south of Brescia several isolated hills are present (Castenedolo hill, Ciliverghe hill, and Monte Netto), corresponding to the top of Late Quaternary anticlines. The Castenedolo and Ciliverghe area was widely explored in the last decades and thick sequences of pedosediments furnished detailed archives for the evolution o...

Paleopedological studies of alluvial systems in intramontane valley settings provide useful tools for understanding the interaction of tectonics, climate, and local base-level changes in controlling alluvial dynamics. An example is reported from the Quaternary alluvial deposits of the Val d'Agri Basin in Southern Italy, which were accreted in respo...

Grows up the importance of the role played by soil scientists in the modern forensic sciences, in particular when buried human remains strongly decomposed or skeletonized are found in different environment situations. Among the different techniques normally used in geopedology, it is usefull to apply in such forensic cases, soil micromorphology (in...

The aim of this study is the reconstruction of Late Holocene soil evolution and environmental changes at the treeline of Northern Apennines (Italy) through field observation, pedoanthracological analysis, soil micromorphology and dendrochronology. Nine soil profiles across the present treeline (c. 1750 m) between 1700 and 2000 m were described. Phy...

The Messak Settafet is a wide plateau located in the Libyan central Sahara (SW Fezzan); it is cut into the Nubian sandstone and interpreted as relic of a Tertiary peneplain, heavily affected by aeolian deflation. Notwithstanding degradation phenomena, discontinuous, thin soil bodies are locally preserved below the hamada. Several profiles, located...

The excavations campaigns carried out in 2006-08 at Grotta di Fumane enabled the extensive exploration of the final Mousterian layers and, at the same time, to start the first large-scale research of the valuable archaeological record preserved at the cave entrance. The present work provides a preliminary assessment of the results from several anth...

The number of death cases of forensic interest grows up every year. When decomposed or skeletal remains come out from the soil, the bones become of anthropological competence and the scene of crime become of soil specialists competence. The present study concerns real cases of buried/hidden remains in clandestine graves which have been studied in o...

The Eneolithic and the Early Bronze Age have been characterized by a generalized slope instability, testified in Europe by frequent slope movements and colluvial deposits, due to the progressive forest clearing and treeline lowering. The causes can be identified both in the impact of increasing human activities and in the effect of the climatic det...

Late Pleistocene Calcareous eolianites exist along the coasts and islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea (Central Mediterranean), particularly on Sardinia Island (western coast), on the Tuscany coast and on the islands of Toscano and Pontino Archipelagos. In the second half of the last century, some authors interpreted Italian eolianites as hanging beach se...

Various terminologies have been employed through the decades for description in soil micromorphology and micropedology. Different Italian translations of such terminologies, more or less complete, have been published. Their succession is described in the Introduction of the present article. Nevertheless, an Italian translation of the most recent te...

In order to adopt correct conservation strike plans to maintain bee pollination activity it is necessary to know the species' resource utilisation and requirements. We investigated the floral resources and the nesting requirements of the eusocial bee Lasioglossum malachurum Kirby at various sites in a Mediterranean landscape. Analysis of bees' poll...

In temperate regions, eolian deposits of different natures are often pedogenically-altered and mixed with underlying sediments. The research reported in this paper identifies for the first time the presence of eolian deposits in soils of central Tuscany and investigates the characteristics and origin. Five relict, polycyclic paleosol profiles were...

A dense grid of petroleum industry seismic reflection profiles, coupled with field mapping, exploratory trenching and geomorphic and structural analysis are used to characterize the Quaternary growth history of the Capriano del Colle Fault System, one of several inferred active buried thrusts that extend across the Po Plain in northern Italy. Short...

Load-carrying capacities of flying animals have important effects on their reproductive success, because it is expected that better performing individuals will benefit during activities such as foraging and nest building. Individually marking Sceliphron mud dauber wasp females and collecting their mud balls at three field sites, we investigated whe...

UDC 911.2:551.442(450) wide, located on the northeastern slope of Mt. Faver- ghera (1640 m a.s.l.) hosting nearly 40 karst dolines partially #lled by periglacial slope deposits. Topographic survey, electric resistivity tomography (ERT), soil and pollen analyses have been carried on. %e structure of the dolines and the characters of the #lling depos...

The sedimentary fills of two dolines in the Faverghera plateau in the Venetian Pre-Alps, south of Belluno, have been investigated. This small plateau is a sub-horizontal surface about 0.5 km 2 wide, located on the northeastern slope of Mt. Faverghera (1640 m a.s.l.) hosting nearly 40 karst dolines partially filled by periglacial slope deposits. Top...

RELLINI I., TROMBINO L., FIRPO M. & ROSSI P.M., Extend-ing westward the loess basin between the Alps and the Mediterranean region: micromorphological and mineralogical evidences from the north-ern slope of the Ligurian Alps, Northern Italy. (IT ISSN 0391-9838, 2009). A representative loess-paleosol sequence has been identified and studied by minera...

In the framework of a regional project aimed at the assessment of seismic hazard in Lombardia based on geological criteria, the first evidence for Holocene coseismic surface faulting unequivocally associated with a Quaternary compressional structure of the Po Plain Foredeep has been identified in a quarry located at Monte Netto, few km S of Brescia...

Resumen: El principal objetivo de este estudio es el de caracterizar las propriedades micromorfológicas y mineraló-gicas de dos paleosuelos plintiticos y de deducir los procesos de formación relacionados con la posición geomorfoló-gica. El primer paleosuelo descrito se sitúa en el altiplano de Mànie y presenta caracteristicas geomorfológicas pare-c...

A digital imaging approach was applied to investigate mortar morphology in thin sections; in particular, the binder/aggregate ratio and the grading curve of five mortar bars were attained by digital image processing (DIP), using the Image Pro Plus 4.1 software package. The imaging procedure employed image segmentation, to extract mortar aggregate,...

A collection of nests of Sceliphron spirifex from nine farms in Lombardy (Italy) enabled us to study their structure using a new approach involving some geological methods, and to add information regarding brood cell contents. Granulometric analysis revealed that the size of the particles used to build the nest does not depend on geographical locat...

Terra Rossa Paleosols on the Prealpine Border. The Study Case of Mount Casto (Val Sabbia, Brescia -Northern Italy). -The Prealpine reach of the Val Sabbia is characterised by the presence of a paleosurface strictly associated to the development of Terra Rossa type soils. They are often constituted by colluviated blankets of soil material and, only...

Two chronosequences of deep red soils, located in Southern Fezzan, are described micromorphologically. The oldest member is probably Late Tertiary in age and has lateritoid characteristics. The intermediate member, of Middle Pleistocene age, displays moderate rubification and much illuvial clay. The most recent member, of Early Holocene age, has we...

Analysis of site formation processes is a field of research which can be enhanced by means of computer applications. In this paper, the Authors suggest the use of image analysis applied to the study of soil micromorphology and to archaeological deposits, aimed at the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the soil components. The presence of sp...