The coastal wetland systems of northern Tuscany: Massaciuccoli Lake and ex Porta Lake. State of knowledge and new opportunities for multidisciplinary approach

The Massaciuccoli lake of and the ex Porta Lake have been selected as Sites of Importance of the European Community for the particular biocommunities that they host. These areas have a complex history that has seen human intervening constantly over the centuries specifically with reclamation operations. Therefore, the landscape we see today is the result of a natural environment strongly shaped by human. In particular, the Massaciuccoli wetland today is in a serious situation of environmental degradation due to anthropic pressures that have caused substantial changes in the functionality and naturalistic aspects of this ecosystem. In this work, an evaluation of the availability and distribution of stratigraphic information for the study area was performed using the stratigraphies collected in the IGGDATABASE, underling that multidisciplinary detailed studies are necessary to better define the recent palaeoenvironmental evolution (Pleistocene-Holocene) and the depositional architecture of the subsurface of these areas. Moreover, a detailed monitoring of these systems both for abiotic and biotic parameters is needed as essential tool for their protection and preservation.