Geoheritage as A Tool to Increase Awareness about Past and Present Climate Change

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Geoheritage, Geoparks and Geotourism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 April 2024) | Viewed by 4580

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Interests: pedosites; soil; paleosols; high-altitude environments

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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Torino, Italy
Interests: geodiversity in high-altitude environments; glacial geomorphology; cryosphere

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The geodiversity of planet Earth is evidently dynamic. Among the different factors influencing geodiversity modifications, past and present climate change is one of the most important.

In this light, geosites, as sites of high scientific value, a component of our heritage, and representative of the geodiversity of a region, may show important evidence of ongoing climate change, in some cases, being deeply affected by it. Moreover, geosites could be considered a useful archive to reconstruct not only ongoing, but also past climate changes. Unfortunately, in this framework, some categories of geosites are often disregarded (e.g., pedosites).

In this Special Issue, we aim to collect papers that demonstrate the importance of different kinds of geosites for the analysis, comprehension and dissemination of the effects of past and present environmental changes linked to climate shifts.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to submit high-quality research articles, mainly focused on new study cases, highlighting current challenges or knowledge gaps about the following topics:

  • Techniques for the identification, assessment and monitoring of geosite status;
  • Scientific studies on geoheritage sites testifying past and present evidence of climate change in different morphoclimatic contexts;
  • Research about dynamic geodiversity;
  • Strategies for promoting geoheritage sites in view of the increasing awareness in the general public about past and present climate change.

Dr. Anna Masseroli
Dr. Cristina Viani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • geoheritage
  • geodiversity
  • climate change
  • geosite
  • geomorphosite
  • pedosite
  • geoeducation
  • geotoursim
  • public awareness

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 80416 KiB  
Article
Present Climate Change as a Threat to Geoheritage: The Wildfire in Bohemian Switzerland National Park and Its Use in Place-Based Learning
by Artur Boháč and Emil Drápela
Geosciences 2023, 13(12), 383; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13120383 - 14 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1393
Abstract
Bohemian Switzerland is a national park in Northern Czechia famous for its sandstone rocks, which were affected by a massive fire in 2022. Specific geomorphology of the region affected the spreading of the fire and complicated its extinguishing. The fire directly or indirectly [...] Read more.
Bohemian Switzerland is a national park in Northern Czechia famous for its sandstone rocks, which were affected by a massive fire in 2022. Specific geomorphology of the region affected the spreading of the fire and complicated its extinguishing. The fire directly or indirectly damaged several geosites in Bohemian Switzerland. The catastrophe brought a possibility of showing the unique connection between geoheritage and present climate change and increasing awareness about the problems. The text is focused on field education of geography, striving to strengthen environmental awareness among students through educating their teachers. The research is based on desk research, field observation and didactic principles application. The causes of the fire were complex, including physical geographical (drought and bark beetle calamity within climate change) and human geographical phenomena (mass tourism and tourist misbehavior, inappropriate forestry practices). The teachers we worked with reached similar conclusions at the end of our course. Our fieldwork educational concept proved viable and was appreciated by them mainly thanks to the incorporation of research-based learning and the absence of unnatural emphasis on climate change. Climate change is a politicized topic, bringing controversies to the classrooms in the peripheral region. The approach we proposed is anchored in inquiry-based methods and touches on the issue indirectly. Full article
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26 pages, 7931 KiB  
Article
Reviewing the Palaeontological and Palaeoenvironmental Heritage of the Monti Pisani Massif (Italy): A Compelling History of Animals, Plants and Climates through Three Geological Eras
by Alberto Collareta, Chiara Sorbini, Simone Farina, Valerio Granata, Lorenzo Marchetti, Chiara Frassi, Lucia Angeli and Giovanni Bianucci
Geosciences 2023, 13(11), 332; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences13110332 - 30 Oct 2023
Viewed by 2675
Abstract
The Monti Pisani massif (Tuscany, central Italy) is an isolated mountain relief known for its rich geodiversity, including a remarkable palaeontological heritage from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The Palaeozoic record consists of exquisitely preserved plant remains and rarer invertebrates of Permo-Carboniferous [...] Read more.
The Monti Pisani massif (Tuscany, central Italy) is an isolated mountain relief known for its rich geodiversity, including a remarkable palaeontological heritage from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The Palaeozoic record consists of exquisitely preserved plant remains and rarer invertebrates of Permo-Carboniferous age, which testify to extensive rainforests and large swamps that thrived in an alluvial system under a humid, (sub)tropical climate. In addition to invertebrate shells, invertebrate trace fossils and microbial structures, the Mesozoic record features a diverse Middle Triassic tetrapod ichnoassemblage consisting of tracks of lepidosauromorphs, archosaurs (among which are the earliest dinosauromorph fossils of Italy) and nonmammalian therapsids. These vertebrates lived in a subsiding costal setting that stretched across an expanding rift valley under a subarid climate. The Cenozoic record features abundant fossils of terrestrial vertebrates (including spectacular members of the mammalian megafauna) from karst deposits, testifying to the manifold inhabitants of the massif during the glacial and interglacial phases of the Late Pleistocene. Overall, this long-lasting fossil record remarkably demonstrates how much the Earth’s environments have been changing through the Phanerozoic. The outstanding palaeontological heritage of the Monti Pisani area is in need of specific efforts of conservation and valorisation, especially with respect to the many palaeontological sites that punctuate the massif. Full article
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