Pleistocene Paleosols of Italy: Pedostratigraphy, Genesis, Paleoclimate and Geoarchaeology

This paper provides the first comprehensive, critical review on Pleistocene paleosols of Italy over about the last for decades. We summarize methodological approaches and major scientific findings from case studies throughout Italy, in both natural environments and human-influenced (archaeological) contexts. Many researchers showed the relevance of paleosols as pedostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic markers, useful for cross-correlations, geological mapping and reconstruction of the geomorphological evolution of Quaternary landscapes. Considering the variety of Italian paleosols, scholars introduced, applied and discussed crucial concepts in soil science, such as pedostratigraphic level, geosol or pedocomplex to reconstruct paleotopographies over time and space. We also discuss the value of paleosols that received distal volcanic input from Pleistocene explosive eruptions as (crypto)tephrostratigraphic markers, along with the neogenesis of short-range order minerals and development of andic properties as paleoenvironmental proxies. Several authors explored the effect of time and duration of exposure of parent materials to pedogenesis on the degree and direction of soil development as observed in soil chronosequence studies. Several among these studies revealed the efficiency of pedogenic iron forms to compare stages of soil formation with age. Many studies emphasized the potential of paleosols for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, often achieved through combining different analytical techniques and natural archives, among which the role of micromorphology gained considerable importance. Prominent clay illuviation and rubification due to hematite formation were interpreted as diagnostic of warm and humid paleoclimates, typical of Pleistocene interglacials. Illuviation of coarser particles, platy, lenticular or cuboid pedogenic structures, banded fabric, ice wedge casts and other macro- and microscale features were considered as indicative of past seasonal freezing in colder environments ...