The Mount Avic massif consists of serpentinized peridotite exposed in the southern Aosta valley (Northwestern Alps), covering an area of ca. 180 km
2
. The 1:10,000 scale geological map is located in ...the southern portion of the massif, where serpentinite is in contact with ophiolitic rocks pertaining to the Piemonte Zone, which represents the fossil Mesozoic Tethyan ocean. Southwards, ophiolites are overthrusted by the continental-derived Austroalpine Mont Glacier unit. Serpentinite consists of antigorite, magnetite, and coarse grained Ti-clinohumite, olivine, and diopside, which are reminiscent of the original mantle texture. Rodingitic mafic dykes are intruded within serpentinite; other mafic rocks, consisting of (not rodingitized) metagabbro and metabasalt with relict eclogitic minerals, occur as tectonic slices associated with serpentinite, calcschist and sulphide-rich epidosite. The map gives detailed and updated information on the structure and lithostratigraphy of the Mount Avic ophiolites, providing an insight to the mantle-crust transition of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere.
The Aosta Red Pied (Valdostana Pezzata Rossa (VRP)), the Aosta Black Pied (Valdostana Pezzata Nera (VBP)) and the Aosta Chestnut (Valdostana Castana (CAS)) are dual-purpose cattle breeds (meat and ...milk), very well adapted to the harsh environmental conditions of alpine territories: their farming is in fact characterized by summer pasture at very high altitude. A total of 728 individuals were genotyped with the GeenSeek Genomic Profiler® (GGP) Bovine 150K Illumina SNP chip as a part of the DUALBREEDING-PSRN Italian-funded research project. The genetic diversity among populations showed that the three breeds are distinct populations based on the F
values, ADMIXTURE and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) results. Runs of Homozygosity (ROH) were obtained for the three populations to disclose recent autozygosity. The genomic inbreeding based on the ROH was calculated and coupled with information derived from the
(inbreeding coefficient) and F
parameters. The mean F
values were low: CAS = 0.06, VBP = 0.05 and VRP = 0.07, while the average
values were -0.003, -0.01 and -0.003, respectively. The annotation and enrichment analysis, performed in the identified most frequent ROH (TOP_ROH), showed genes that can be linked to the resilience capacity of these populations to harsh environmental farming conditions, and to the peculiar characteristics searched for by farmers in each breed.
Purpose
Developing sustainable mobility can add value to the travel and tourism experience in alpine areas and can become a challenge for destinations in terms of interests, goals, skills and values ...involving both public and private subjects. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new model for delivering sustainable transport services that in recent experiences seem to be an alternative to the use of owned cars by allowing the personalized use of a bundle of public and private transport means. This paper aims to identify the positive aspects in the two main Alpine regions affected by tourism demand coming mainly from Lombardy by implementing a mobility model inspired by Maas in the Lombardy capital.
Design/methodology/approach
The tourism demand of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Aosta Valley Region is thus analyzed using descriptive statistics on tourist flows and mobility characteristics.
Findings
Technology and propensity to change are the determining factors to move from traditional to innovative mobility systems.
Originality/value
This work, by considering the recent studies on MaaS models, limited to sustainable urban mobility models, extends the MaaS approach to the key concepts of “sustainable mobility” and “sustainable tourism” by analyzing the tourist flow, which from Lombardy invest the main alpine regions.
The assessment of natural background levels (NBLs) is crucial in the management of groundwater resources and the definition of the status of groundwater bodies according to the Water Framework ...Directive 2000/60/EC. This work presents a new MATLAB code to assess NBLs by the component separation method, which concerns the identification and separation of a natural and an anthropogenic component within geochemical data. To increase the validity of the estimated NBL, the code calculates a set of possible solutions that should then be evaluated by the user. The following evaluation criteria are proposed: (i) stability of solution, (ii) hydrogeochemical reliability, (iii) agreement with the conceptual model and (iv) goodness of fit.
The code is tested on groundwater Mn, Fe, As, Ni, Cr(VI) and NH4 concentrations observed in two study areas with different hydrogeological and geochemical features in northern Italy: the multi-layer aquifer of Cremona (lower Po Plain) and the alluvial aquifer of the Aosta Plain (western Alpine sector). The pre-selection method is also applied to estimate NBLs and threshold values are assessed.
The NBLs calculated through the component separation method (4292, 27 and 1220μg/L for Fe, As and NH4 in Cremona and 56, 261, 9 and 2.3μg/L for Mn, Fe, Ni and Cr(VI) in Aosta, respectively) approach those estimated by the pre-selection (2798, 25 and 1820μg/L for Fe, As and NH4 in Cremona and 52, 264, 10 and 1.8μg/L for Mn, Fe, Ni and Cr(VI) in Aosta, respectively). This outcome increases the validity of the estimated NBLs. The code showed versatile applicability in different contexts and conditions (e.g., different numbers of samples and monitoring points, different sampling networks). This work highlights the strength of the component separation method although some criticisms are pointed out, mainly related to the superimposition of a log-normal function for modeling the natural component.
•A new code to estimate natural background levels by component separation is presented.•The code is data-driven although some hydrogeological knowledge is needed.•Two study areas with different features in northern Italy are used to test the code.•Pre-selection is also applied and the two methods show comparable results.
The geological map of the Saint-Marcel valley at the scale of 1:20,000 illustrates the tectonic setting of metaophiolites from the southern Aosta Valley, in the Italian side of the Western Alpine ...belt. The map highlights the sharp contact between the metaophiolitic basement and its metasedimentary cover, which mainly consists of quartzites, marbles, and calcschists. In spite of the Alpine tectonics, this contact is regarded as deriving from the original oceanic crust/sediments interface. Metaophiolites mostly consist of metabasalts hosting Fe-Cu sulphide mineralisations, characterised by high-pressure metamorphic imprint. These rocks likely represent the shallowest portion of the Tethyan oceanic lithosphere created near the axis of the slow-spreading ridge where hydrothermal fluid circulation was active. Selected key-sections through metasediments reveal a consistent internal lithostratigraphy, in spite of the pervasive metamorphic and tectonic reworking acting during the Alpine evolution. Metasediments reflect various sedimentation episodes starting from pelagic and proximal settings to the onset of the orogenic stage. The Saint-Marcel valley metasediments thus reflect a changing in the sedimentation environments through time and space during the overall geologic evolution.
Mural paintings which decorate the external façade and the internal apsidal wall of a chapel dedicated to St. Maxime and located at Challand St. Victor in the Aosta Valley (Italy) have been analysed ...with a combined approach involving high-resolution fibre-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy. The paintings are attributed to Giacomino from Ivrea, a painter active around the mid-fifteenth century. In order to characterise the palette used by the painter and to yield information useful to restorers, the cited techniques were used either in situ with portable instruments and in laboratory, working on micro samples withdrawn from paintings. The global analytical approach, though not entirely non-invasive, can indeed be considered non-destructive as multiple analyses, including SEM-EDX, could be carried out on the micro samples, exploiting the features of each technique. On the basis of the information obtained, the palette was found to be composed of typical fresco pigments such as calcite, azurite, malachite, vermilion, red and yellow ochres. A particular situation was noted for black pigments since the presence of graphite, rather than wood or lamp carbon, was found, possibly related to the presence of graphite deposits in the Aosta Valley. Furthermore, the presence of smalt superimposed to azurite in areas showing evidence of repainting was detected, suggesting that paintings were subjected to retouching at a relatively early stage after the original execution. Finally, the presence of tin foils, used to decorate haloes of Evangelists, was ascertained.
Three tunnels for hydraulic purposes were excavated by tunnel-boring machines (TBM) in mostly hard metamorphic rocks in Northern Italy. A total of 14
km of tunnel was surveyed almost continually, ...yielding over 700 sets of data featuring rock mass characteristics and TBM performance. The empirical relations between rock mass rating and penetration rate clearly show that TBM performance reaches a maximum in the rock mass rating (
RMR) range 40–70 while slower penetration is experienced in both too bad and too good rock masses. However, as different rocks gives different penetrations for the same
RMR, the use of Bieniawski's classification for predictive purpose is only possible provided one uses a normalized
RMR index with reference to the basic factors affecting TBM tunneling. Comparison of actual penetrations with those predicted by the Innaurato and Barton models shows poor agreement, thus highlighting the difficulties involved in TBM performance prediction.
Previous grazing experience on high alpine pastures may help cows to optimise feed selection and minimise impairments in milk production. Eight inexperienced and eight experienced Aosta Red Pied cows ...were compared (primiparous:multiparous = 1:1). Measurements were performed when cows grazed sites at 600, 1800 and 2100 m a.s.l. The statistical model included experience, parity and site as fixed effects. The longest ingestion time was recorded for primiparous inexperienced cows at 1800 m a.s.l. Milk yield remained unaffected by experience, but the main milking time was shorter in inexperienced cows in the lowlands. Milk of inexperienced cows had a higher urea content than experienced cows. Somatic cell score remained unaffected by experience, but inexperienced cows had more incidences of clinical mastitis on alpine pastures. Compared with experienced cows, proportions of the fatty acids ΣC16:1 and ΣC17:1 in milk fat of inexperienced cows were higher and proportions of C18:1 t9 and C18:1 t6-8 lower. Overall, alpine grazing had substantial effects on milk yield and composition coinciding with results from previous studies. There were interactions between experience and site in milking characteristics and milk composition, and for the latter also between experience and parity. In conclusion, experience had effects on several of the variables tested, effects which were sometimes exhibited already on lowland pasture. Still, the effects of experience were much lower than those of the transhumance system.
Highlights
The advantages of previous site-specific and age experience of cows were studied on alpine pasture.
Lack of experience had mostly minor effects on economically relevant traits.
Experience helped to maintain udder health in this alpine environment.
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