Human-induced changes and phyto-geomorphological relationships in the historical ravaneti landscape of the Carrara marble basin (Tuscany, Italy)

Abstract

Marble has been extracted from the Carrara quarries (Apuan Alps, Italy) for over two millennia. This cultural landscape is characterised by singular landforms called ravaneti, causing environmental problems due to debris flow, thus imperilling human settlements and natural heritage. Geomorphological and vegetation analyses have highlighted that in a decade, vegetation cover greatly increased, indicating potential for passive restoration of dump deposits. The assessment of plant assemblages indicates a decrease in plant richness and endemics, and an increase in wood and alien species. The conservation of historical ravaneti landscape requires weighted restoration actions to reduce geomorphological hazards and preserve native biodiversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropocene
• cultural landscape
• landscape analysis
• vegetation succession
• quarry restoration
• vegetated slope stability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

The study was conducted with contributions from all authors that authored or reviewed drafts of the paper and approved the final version. CB, LA, RG, and MCS conceived the work. RG and MCS coordinated the manuscript writing. RG designed and performed plant sampling in 2005 and analysed all the plant data. AE and FP performed plant sampling in 2019. CB, LA and MCS conducted geomorphological and remote sensing analyses.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the University of Pisa research grants (C. Baroni, M.C. Salvatore, Ateneo 2014-17, PRA-2017_35), by the PhD Course in Earth Sciences of the University of Pisa, 34^th Cycle and with the support of the Municipality of Carrara, and the project ADAPT (PC Interreg Italia -Francia Marittimo 14-20, B19J16002890007).