Climatic and hydrological impacts on a coastal subsiding plain: The case of Sybaris Plain

Coastal and deltaic plains represent vulnerable environments affected by natural processes (e.g., land subsidence, sea level rise, saltwater intrusion, and marine intrusion). Their impact is often exacerbated by increasing human-induced pressure due to land-use and hydrological changes. The Sybaris Plain (Calabria, Italy) represents a perfect case study for the analysis of environmental and climatic changes that occurred in a coastal subsiding plain in southern Italy during the Holocene. A series of plain drillings was carried out to better locate the construction of a new highway as the territory is often flooded. On the basis of preliminary pollen and radiocarbon analysis the core S4 Bis (40 m long) was selected and a new complete core S4 Ter (39°73’N; 16°40’E, at 13 m a.s.l) was recently drilled to the same depth. The new core is now under study for the paleoenvironmental reconstruction through magnetic susceptibility, tephra, radiocarbon, microfauna, and pollen analyses. However, in order to deeply analyse the interactions between past populations and vegetational changes in the area through time, it is of primary importance to consider on-site pollen records from the plain. The plain hosted the Early and Late Neolithic site of “Favella della Corte”, located in the middle of the coastal plain (39°68’N; 16°45’E), at 14 m a.s.l. The quaternary terraces around the plain were the seat of many Bronze and Iron Age sites. The plain was afterwards part of the agrarian and funerary landscape of the Greek colonies of Sybaris and Thurii, and of the Roman colony of Copiae, followed by a marshy Medieval and early modern phase. Results of pollen analysis show an open environment dominated by herbaceous plants, in combination with a strong presence of microcharcoals and fungi spores. Swamps correlated to high-water tables are indicated by fern spores. Pollen signals are closely influenced by past water channels and artificial drainages. Vegetational indicators, integrated with the perspective of the historical trajectory, show resilient strategies adopted by archaic populations such as a model for a future water management in recent times.