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The integrated interpretation of different types of data, consisting of a detailed Digital Terrain Model, field structural and morphotectonic observations, high resolution seismic data, seismological and Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry information (vertical and horizontal movements), associated with a review of the available literature, has allowed to analyze the shallow expression of the regional-scale Petilia-Sosti Shear Zone (PSSZ). It is one of the major NW-trending tectonic lineaments affecting the Calabrian Arc and is characterized by a present-day tectonic and gravity-driven deformation. This study investigated the portion of the PSSZ between the offshore Crotone Peninsula, located along the Ionian sea of Calabria, and the central part of the Sila Massif. A complex tectonic history is documented since middle Miocene onward for the PSSZ. It consists of an alternation of sinistral and dextral transpressional and transtensional tectonic phases correlated with the geodynamic events occurred during the SE migration of the Calabrian Arc. The shallow expression of the investigated part of the PSSZ consists of a roughly 14 km wide, ca. 80 km long NW-trending tectonic zone including synthetic NW- to NNW-trending faults and N-NE antithetic minor structures. The main identified NW-trending faults, which show a development between 30 and 50 km, are the Sila and Lakes faults in the Sila Massif, and the Marcedusa-Steccato, Fosso Umbro and Tacina faults located in the SW part of the Crotone Basin and in its offshore area. Currently, the fault segments of the Sila Massif exhibit a prevailing normal kinematics with a left-lateral component, whereas a more complex geological framework occurs in the south-western part of the onshore-offshore Crotone Basin. The latter is dominated by gravity-driven movements, associated with the SE migration of the Crotone Megalandslide and with the regional uplift of Calabria, whereas normal kinematics with a small left-lateral component of movement, locally replaced by reverse/transpressional tectonics, was observed along the southern coast in the late Pleistocene deposits of the Le Castella marine terrace. The seismological data highlight that some strong earthquakes occurred in 1638, 1744 and 1832, with magnitude Mw between 5.7 and 6.8, might be associated with the Lakes, Fosso Umbro and Tacina faults respectively. In this frame, the PSSZ is proposed as a new potential NW-oriented active composite seismogenic source for the central-northern Calabria.

As is the case with many deltas in the world, the Po Delta (Italy) and its barrier systems have experienced severe modifications over the last century as a consequence of anthropogenic subsidence and river input decrease. The interruption of subsurface fluid withdrawals in the early 1960s created an opportunity to evaluate the effects of the subsequent subsidence decrease along the 11 km of beaches and 45 km of barrier islands of the Po Delta, and improve the understanding of coastal system response to relative sea level rise. To this aim, shoreline and bathymetric multi-decadal dataset were coupled with the local rate of subsidence and classified with a geomorphic - response approach. From 1954-78, a mean shoreline variation of −224 m (−9.34 m y−1) occurred under high rates of subsidence (14–43 mm y−1) with a diffuse process of landward barrier rollover (up to 1124 m), frequently associated with break-up. This phase is evidenced by the diffuse sinking of the shoreface (up to 4 m), the negative upper shoreface sediment budget and the parallel drowning of the cross-shore profiles highlighted by the 1968–2008 bathymetric dataset. Despite the loss of altimetry and shoreline retreat being almost irrecoverable, during the period from 1978 to 1996 and 1996 to 2014 barrier islands experienced a stabilisation in response to a decrease in the subsidence rates down to 6 mm y−1. The mean rates of shoreline changes (−0.25 and + 1.51 m y−1 respectively) are the results of different local behaviour with progressively dominant longshore processes and progradation at the most active fluvial branches. The most recent bathymetric data (2008–2014) confirm this reversal trend, both in the altimetry differences and in the upper shoreface sediment budget. This trend is at odds with signals from many of the world's deltas and represents an important issue for the present and future coastal management and adaptation plans.

Poplar short rotation coppice represents a very good opportunity for the production of bioenergy as a strategy against global changes. In recent years, numerous plantations in central Italy showed worrying stump mortality of uncertain cause. Investigations have therefore been conducted to determine the etiology and symptomatology of this phenomenon. The external symptoms begin with leaf yellowing and sometimes necrosis, microphyllia, and reduced shoots growth, followed by withering and death of the stump. Upon sectioning of the stump, we detected browning of internal tissues of roots and crown, gradually deepening in. In severe cases, we observed wood decay in the central part of the stump, eventually deepening into the root system. Cultures from the edge of necrotic tissue on PDA yielded isolates of the same fungus. Sequence analysis of the Internal Transcriber Spacer region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) and of the ?-tubulin gene showed that the isolates belong to the genus Cryptosphaeria. Species identification is still ongoing. Eventually, wood decay organisms belonging to the genera Pholiota and Collibia colonized the tissues as secondary invaders. Future goals will be to identify the species of the pathogen, define the disease predisposing factors and identify possible control measures.

The contributions of eustasy and tectonics to the development of stratigraphic sequences are commonly hard to discern, and this has been a controversial topic that is still being debated. New data are therefore necessary to improve our understanding of the factors that govern sedimentary cyclicity. Data from the subsiding Venice and the uplifting Crotone areas in Italy allow the recognition of the different effects of Late Quaternary glacio-eustatic changes and regional tectonics on sequence architecture at different temporal scales. Shallow-marine small-scale sequences linked to short-term glacio-eustatic changes at the scale of the marine isotope substage cyclicity (10000 years) show features that developed irrespective of the local conditions of subsidence or uplift, such as a modest thickness, a similar organization of facies and thin transgressive deposits. In contrast, lower frequency composite sequences at the scale of 100000 years show strongly different architectures and stacking patterns depending on the regional tectonic context: downstepping in uplifting areas and aggradational in subsiding areas. The present results, therefore, highlight that only the architecture of small-scale sequences showing a periodicity of about 20 and 40 ka appears to be dominated by the glacio-eustatic variable, because of the very high rates of sea-level change characterizing the substage cyclicity, which overprints the regional tectonic signal.