Province Of Belluno Research Articles

Redevelopment of the Urban Area of the Former Canossian Oratory within the City Walls of Feltre

This paper concerns the redevelopment of an urban space within the historic walls of Feltre, an ancient city located inthe province of Belluno, not far from Venice. It is particularly focused on the disused Oratory of the Canossian Friars,at the top of the medieval city. The site is now abandoned and degraded, devoid of function and unresolved in form.It is located close to the city's main square and is bordered by pre-existing buildings of relevant historical importance,including the Castle, the Napoleonic Stables, the Clock Tower, the Civic Museum and the Church of San Rocco. In another respect, the former Oratory of the Canossian Friars, which was investigated by our research group at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padova, is proposed as a case study regarding the relationship between new and old.

Energy self-sufficiency and sustainable development in a closed mountain area

The present paper presents the first results of a study for defining the environmental energy plan of the Province of Belluno, placed in a mountain territory in North-East of Italy. In the plan, the energy consumptions and the potential of renewable energy sources in this tipically mountainous area were first analyzed. The aim of the study was to identify the best strategies of intervention to ensure the sustainable development of the territory. The most energy-consuming sectors have been analyzed and some first possible response interventions have been proposed. The industrial and tertiary sectors have very few possible interventions worthy of note, but the residential sector can be greatly improved. At the same time, the field of energy production has been analyzed, the current state has been studied in detail and the improving potential has been evaluated, focusing on renewable energies, especially on small size hydroelectric power plant and on photovoltaic energy

Healthy Snack Project: Improving Healthy Choices through Multidisciplinary Food Education Actions.

School is one of the main settings where it is useful to guarantee health promotion actions, as it is well known that diet and eating habits that are shaped in the early stages of life are maintained through adulthood. The objective of this study was to carry out the "Healthy Snack" project to promote nutritional education in primary schools in the Province of Belluno in the 2022-2023 school year, in which 925 students were enrolled, and to evaluate the intervention in terms of changes in eating habits during their school breaks. Following the workshops performed by the healthcare workers (HCWs), medals were awarded, taking into account the quality of the participating students' mid-morning snacks, considering the food pyramid. The results collected in the annual survey period were related to the type and quantity of snacks consumed at school, and allowed students to gain a final score, comparing the period before and after the educational intervention to demonstrate the effectiveness of the actions promoted by HCWs and the increased nutritional quality of meals. In light of this evidence, public health strategies must continue to emphasize the importance of implementing health promotion interventions and actions aimed at children in order to prevent weight gain in this age group, and the potential development of cardiometabolic pathologies over their lifetime.

Human impact on vegetation at Lago di Vedana (Dolomites, Northern Italy) during the last seven centuries

Studying the legacies of past human-environment interactions is essential for understanding current landscape and biodiversity patterns. Human influences on past terrestrial and aquatic vegetation are reconstructed based on palynological analysis conducted on a sediment core from Lago di Vedana (Province of Belluno, Northern Italy). This study represents the first pollen record from the Dolomitic lowlands with varying anthropogenic influences throughout the last 700 years. The radiocarbon-dated pollen record begins ca. A.D. 1300 with semi-open forest and moderate human impact, possibly due to activities of the nearby hospice of San Gottardo. Human impact increased with the foundation of the Vedana Charterhouse in the immediate catchment of the lake in A.D. 1457. Activities of the monks involved extensive forest clearing, cultivation of Cannabis/Humulus and possibly hemp retting. In the 19th century the composition of cultivated species changed following the transformation of the Charterhouse into a farm. The 20th century is characterized by expansion of forest taxa and a distinct decline of human influences, probably due to a rural exodus and abandonment of agricultural activities. Vegetation development at Lago di Vedana is consistent with general trends in the Italian Alps and reveals local cultivation practices. The results illustrate the close intertwinement of climatic trends and local human influences, modulated by regional socio-cultural developments during the last millennium.

Environmental pollution in North-Eastern Italy and its influence on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: time series modelling and analysis using visibility graphs

The impact on human health from environmental pollution is receiving increasing attention. In the case of respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the relationship is now well documented. However, few studies have been carried out in areas with low population density and low industrial production, such as the province of Belluno (North-Eastern Italy). The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of exposure to certain pollutants on the temporal dynamics of hospital admissions for COPD in the province of Belluno. Daily air pollution concentration, humidity, precipitations, and temperature were collected from the air monitoring stations in Belluno. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) and visibility graphs were used to determine the effects of the short-term exposure to environmental agents on hospital admissions associated to COPD. In the case of the city of Belluno, the GAMM showed that hospital admissions were associated with NO2, PM10, date, and temperature, while for the city of Feltre, GAMM produced no associated variables. Several visibility graph indices (average edge overlap and interlayer mutual information) showed a significant overlap between environmental agents and hospital admission for both cities. Our study has shown that visibility graphs can be useful in establishing associations between environmental agents and COPD hospitalization in sparsely populated areas.

Hydrogeological parameterization of the landslide of Lamosano, (Eastern Italian Alps)

The area of the village of Lamosano, in the province of Belluno (North-East Italy), has been critically affected for several decades by a landslide that has caused significant damages to buildings and infrastructures. This instability process, involving almost the whole village, is set in a 30-meter thin layer of Quaternary deposits and marls. Groundwater flow within these deposits has been identified as one of the primary causes of the slope movement.With the purpose of identifying fundamental and useful parameters for the intelligent design of landslide countermeasures, a series of geological and hydrogeological investigations have been carried out.Through the analysis of 18 stratigraphic logs, a geological model for the subsoil was provided.The hydrogeological characterization concerned the realization of slug tests and point dilution tests to properly estimate the hydraulic conductivity (K) and the groundwater flow velocity (vd), respectively. Both investigations have been conducted on the five piezometers available in the study area. A satisfactory agreement has been detected between the K values and vd.The data provided in this study can be used as a basis for the efficient implementation of a coupled hydrogeological-mechanical model, which would considerably contribute to the mitigation of the landslide risk.

Assessing the importance of conditioning factor selection in landslide susceptibility for the province of Belluno (region of Veneto, northeastern Italy)

Abstract. In the domain of landslide risk science, landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) is very important, as it helps spatially identify potential landslide-prone regions. This study used a statistical ensemble model (frequency ratio and evidence belief function) and two machine learning (ML) models (random forest and XGBoost; eXtreme Gradient Boosting) for LSM in the province of Belluno (region of Veneto, northeastern Italy). The study investigated the importance of the conditioning factors in predicting landslide occurrences using the mentioned models. In this paper, we evaluated the importance of the conditioning factors in the overall prediction capabilities of the statistical and ML algorithms. By the trial-and-error method, we eliminated the least “important” features by using a common threshold of 0.30 for statistical and 0.03 for ML algorithms. Conclusively, we found that removing the least important features does not impact the overall accuracy of LSM for all three models. Based on the results of our study, the most commonly available features, for example, the topographic features, contributes to comparable results after removing the least important ones, namely the aspect plan and profile curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI), topographic roughness index (TRI), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the case of the statistical model and the plan and profile curvature, TWI, and topographic position index (TPI) for ML algorithms. This confirms that the requirement for the important conditioning factor maps can be assessed based on the physiography of the region.

Cutaneous Melanoma in Alpine Population: Incidence Trends and Clinicopathological Profile.

Previous studies associated high-level exposure to ultraviolet radiation with a greater risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM). This study focuses on the changing incidence of CMM over time (from 1990 to 2017) in the Veneto region of Northeast Italy, and its Alpine area (the province of Belluno). The clinicopathological profile of CMM by residence is also considered. A joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify significant changes in the yearly incidence of CMM by sex and age. For each trend, the average annual percent change (AAPC) was also calculated. In the 2017 CMM cohort, the study includes a descriptive analysis of the disease’s categorical clinicopathological variables. In the population investigated, the incidence of CMM has increased significantly over the last 30 years. The AAPC in the incidence of CMM was significantly higher among Alpine residents aged 0–49 than for the rest of the region’s population (males: 6.9 versus 2.4; females 7.7 versus 2.7, respectively). Among the Alpine residents, the AAPC was 3.35 times greater for females aged 0–49 than for people aged 50+. The clinicopathological profile of CMM was significantly associated with the place of residence. Over three decades, the Veneto population has observed a significant increase in the incidence of CMM, and its AAPC. Both trends have been markedly more pronounced among Alpine residents, particularly younger females. While epidemiology and clinicopathological profiles support the role of UV radiation in CMM, the young age of this CMM-affected female population points to other possible host-related etiological factors. These findings also confirm the importance of primary and secondary prevention strategies.

Hypogene speleogenesis and paragenesis in the Dolomites

The Dolomites of northern Italy feature some of the most intensively studied carbonate rocks worldwide. Yet, little is known about the long karst history of this mountain range dating back to the Miocene. This study scrutinizes three caves (F10, Milchloch and Cioccherloch) in the Fanes-Sennes-Prags Nature Park (Province of South Tyrol) and the adjacent Fosses area in the Natural Park of Ampezzo Dolomites (Province of Belluno, Veneto). Paleo-phreatic passages of these limestone caves mostly follow a NW-SE orientation, similar to the nearby Val Salata fault. A multi-method approach including cave morphological and isotopic analyses of wall-rock cores was applied to reconstruct the multi-stage speleogenetic history of these cavities. Clastic sediments partly cemented to the cave walls and paragenetic features such as ceiling channels and solutional ramps are present in all studied caves. F10 cave shows widespread laughöhle geometries, including inverted cone chambers and horizontal passages with trapezoid cross sections, characteristic of slow water convection in a hypogene regime. Drill cores in F10 cave exhibit a systematic depletion in both oxygen and carbon isotopes close to the cave wall. The thickness of this isotopically altered zone ranges from a few mm to 4 cm and alteration can sometimes also be macroscopically identified. The amplitude of the isotopic shift ranges from 2.0 to 5.0‰ for δ13C and from 1.9 to 4.9‰ for δ18O. One of the wall rock cores from Cioccherloch also shows a thin isotopic halo, while no evidence of isotopic alteration was found in Milchloch. Our results provide strong geochemical evidence of wall rock alteration driven by hypogene water-rock interaction in at least two of the caves. We propose an early hypogene speleogenetic phase, followed by uplift and denudation resulting in the opening of these cavities to the surface that allowed clastic sediment influx. The sediment infill in combination with the abundant paragenetic features records a second phase in the karst evolution. This paragenetic phase did not involve hypogene waters, as indicated by the lack of isotopic alteration in the wall rock of paragenetic features. The latest phase of speleogenesis is represented by vadose morphologies and vadose speleothems locally dating back to at least 650 ka. This study demonstrates that the combination of morphological analyses and geochemical fingerprinting represents a powerful approach to decipher the commonly complex speleogenetic history of limestone caves.

Drive-through vaccinations prove successful in immunizing mountain communities against tick-borne encephalitis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SummaryIn March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted most of the routine outpatient activities in Italian hospitals and Prevention Departments, including those vaccinations which were not urgent and/or scheduled for children aged 0-6 years. Since June 2020, when the pandemic entered a milder phase, in the alpine Province of Belluno (Veneto, North-Eastern Italy), 12,152 doses of vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis have been administered by means of the innovative “drive-through” modality. No significant adverse events have occurred and popular demand has steadily grown, proving the “drive-through” approach to be safe, efficient and successful.

The Olynthus mill in the Alps: New hypotheses from two unidentified millstones discovered in Veneto region (Italy)

The archaeological collection at the Museum of Feltre (province of Belluno, Veneto region, Italy) includes fragments of two ancient millstones of type known as “Olynthus mill” or “hopper rubber”. The first one (from San Donato, in the municipality of Lamón) is mentioned in a number of published and unpublished works; the other (generally from Feltre) is new to archaeological literature. Until now, they had never been identified as specimens of the Olynthus mill.
 Following a brief introduction on this type of device (its technical features, origin and geographic distribution) and the main hypotheses concerning its diffusion in the Alps, the first part of this paper describes the two stones from Feltre: their dimensions, morphological features, raw material, etc. Consequently, this article will focus on the topographical areas where the stones were found and on their importance for understanding the diffusion of the Olynthus mill model in the Alpine region characterised by Raetic culture, which is still an unresolved problem. The sites of discovery of the two Olynthus mills (along with the places of origin of the other hopper rubbers found in the Veneto region and in the eastern part of the province of Trento) could suggest new working hypotheses about the provenance of this type of millstone and its introduction into the Raetic territory between 5th and 4th century BCE. More specifically, the Olynthus mill model might have been introduced into the Alps through the Piave and Brenta valleys and not the Adige valley as previously thought; the Olynthian-type mills from the Veneto region could therefore mark the stages of this south-north path rather than being mere outlying specimens of the Raetic area, or items exported from there.

Environmental and management drivers of alpine grassland vegetation types

Current vegetation of alpine grasslands has been shaped by the combination of natural ecological factors (such as climate, soil, topography) and human activities, mainly represented by animal grazing and agricultural practices. An assessment of these factors can explain the present composition of plant communities and help to evaluate the future development of rangeland vegetation. Nowadays, the analysis of the botanical composition of grasslands is of a major importance in order to propose appropriate management plans for the sustainable exploitation of pastoral resources and their future conservation. The main purpose of this work was to assess the relevance of ecological and management factors in alpine grasslands in an area located in eastern Italy, currently used for extensive grazing, and to describe the main factors that affect the characteristics of pasture types. To this aim, about 900 ha of alpine grasslands were surveyed in Val Visdende (northern Veneto, province of Belluno, Italy) by means of 189 linear transects. Some environmental variables (altitude, slope, aspect) and factors related to management (pastoral value, animal excreta, distance from night barns) were collected for each botanical transect. Landolt indicators were calculated in order to evaluate the ecological space occupied by each type. This assessment made it possible to identify the most relevant grassland communities (namely nutrient poor, shrub encroached, nutrient rich and humid pastures) occurring in the studied area, the effectiveness of ecological indicators to describe and to differentiate vegetation groups and the effect of animal management and ecological factors in the discrimination of grassland types.

Do We Know the True Burden of Tick-Borne Encephalitis? A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an acute human arboviral infection of the central nervous system caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans mainly by tick bites. TBE is endemic in Europe and has become an increasingly important public health concern in recent years. Cases of TBE in Italy have occurred mainly in the north-east and central parts of the country. Vaccination is recommended for people who live in or visit areas at higher risk of tick bites. Objective: The aim of our study was to ascertain the burden of TBE in the Veneto Region (north-east Italy). Methods: Cases of TBE occurring in the region from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2018, were extracted from the database of the mandatory notification system (MNS) and from hospital discharge records (HDRs) of admissions relating to a diagnostic code 063 according to the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification. Capture-recapture methods were used to estimate the completeness of each data source (as a percentage of cases). Records including diagnostic codes 322.9 (Meningitis, unspecified) and 323.9 (Unspecified cause of encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis) were also extracted from the HDR database. Municipalities were grouped by location, based on their elevation above sea level, as “mountains,” “hills,” or “lowlands”. After selecting only the municipalities where cases of TBE had occurred, the proportion of cases of TBE out of the total cases of encephalitis and meningitis identified was calculated and used to estimate the number of cases of TBE potentially occurring in the municipalities that reported none. Then the observed and adjusted TBE rates per 100,000 population were calculated. Results: During the 12 years considered, a total of 281 cases of TBE were identified; 155 emerged from the HDRs and the MNS, 89 only from the MNS database, and 37 only from the HDRs. The degree of completeness of the data was 93.0% for the MNS and HDRs combined, 80.8% for the MNS alone, and 63.6% for the HDRs alone. The observed annual rate of TBE in the Veneto in recent years was calculated at 0.48 per 100,000 population, with the highest standardized rate in the province of Belluno (5.95 per 100,000 population). A significant rising trend in the number of cases observed in the latest period (2015–2018) was apparent for the mountainous areas in the region (average annual percent changes: 43.7 [95% CI 19.0–73.5]). The number of cases peaked in the mountains in the month of June (0.89 per 100,000), in hilly areas in July (0.23 per 100,000) and in the lowlands in October (0.04 per 100,000). Conclusions: Our findings seem to confirm an underreporting of the cases of TBE and inadequate TBE surveillance in the Veneto, despite the clinical severity of the disease and the fact that it is mandatory to report all cases. The routine integration of different databases is crucial to the successful implementation and assessment of targeted prevention strategies and fundamental to public health decision-making on this issue.

Provincia di Belluno. Tracce di contemporaneità / Province of Belluno. Traces of contemporaneity

The Province of Belluno is home of great human and landscape quality and of the beautiful Dolomites, UNESCO World Heritage. How experiences of contemporary architecture fit and how are promoted in this context? It can be said that contemporary architecture does not attract a big audience. This is despite the constant efforts by various bodies and associations to promote its diffusion and development through competitions, conferences, workshops and case studies. In the Belluno region, apart from the extraordinary extant historical heritage, there are widespread examples of new architecture known as “false alpine models” or architecture that has erroneously become typical of the Province’s image. This is the reason why this new architecture with its range of peculiarities is widely reiterated, from north to south of the area. Even though buildings of this type lack any real ties with history or tradition, they find widespread approval by institutions and commissions. They are the result of repetitive practices deriving from constraints imposed by local regulations and a limited aptitude in the use of contemporary language of architecture. Even if the barometer of the vitality of contemporary architecture in the region of Belluno is rather lukewarm, dampened by cultural resistance and by regulatory constraints affecting its growth and diffusion, there is no lack of experiences, initiatives and achievements. The latter is evidence of the fact that where research and the use of contemporary languages are accompanied by the opinions of enlightened patrons, good architecture is born, which find space in the arena of national and international architectural debate. Examples of good architecture, even though limited in number, are distributed across the Province and constitute heritage and the focus for promoting and consolidating the growth and dissemination of contemporary architecture throughout the area.

Developing a Molecular Identification Assay of Old Landraces for the Genetic Authentication of Typical Agro-Food Products: The Case Study of the Barley 'Agordino'.

The orzo Agordino is a very old local variety of domesticated barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. distichum L.) that is native to the Agordo District, Province of Belluno, and is widespread in the Veneto Region, Italy. Seeds of this landrace are widely used for the preparation of very famous dishes of the dolomitic culinary tradition such as barley soup, bakery products and local beer. Understanding the genetic diversity and identity of the Agordino barley landrace is a key step to establish conservation and valorisation strategies of this local variety and also to provide molecular traceability tools useful to ascertain the authenticity of its derivatives. The gene pool of the Agordino barley landrace was reconstructed using 60 phenotypically representative individual plants and its genotypic relationships with commercial varieties were investigated using 21 pure lines widely cultivated in the Veneto Region. For genomic DNA analysis, following an initial screening of 14 mapped microsatellite (SSR) loci, seven discriminant markers were selected on the basis of their genomic position across linkage groups and polymorphic marker alleles per locus. The genetic identity of the local barley landrace was determined by analysing all SSR markers in a single multi-locus PCR assay. Extent of genotypic variation within the Agordino barley landrace and the genotypic differentiation between the landrace individuals and the commercial varieties was determined. Then, as few as four highly informative SSR loci were selected and used to develop a molecular traceability system exploitable to verify the genetic authenticity of food products deriving from the Agordino landrace. This genetic authentication assay was validated using both DNA pools from individual Agordino barley plants and DNA samples from Agordino barley food products. On the whole, our data support the usefulness and robustness of this DNA-based diagnostic tool for the orzo Agordino identification, which could be rapidly and efficiently exploited to guarantee the authenticity of local varieties and the typicality of food products.

Current distribution of the invasive mosquito species, Aedes koreicus [Hulecoeteomyia koreica] in northern Italy.

BackgroundThe invasive species Aedes (Finlaya) koreicus was first identified in north-eastern Italy in 2011, during the ongoing surveillance activity of Aedes albopictus. Following this finding, a more intensive monitoring was carried out to assess the distribution of the species and to collect biological data. Herein, we report the new records obtained by four years of surveillance.FindingsThe presence of Ae. koreicus was checked using ovitraps, adults traps and by larval collections in all possible breeding sites from May 2011 to July 2015. The monitoring started in the site of the first detection (Province of Belluno) and was then extended in the neighbouring Provinces belonging to four Regions. Aedes koreicus was found in 73 municipalities out of 155 monitored (47.1 %), including 23 municipalities (14.8 %) previously not infested. The area of first detection of Ae. koreicus (Province of Belluno) was also the most infested (68 %). However the mosquito has also been found to the west (Province of Trento) and to the south and south-west (Provinces of Vicenza and Treviso) of the initially infested area.ConclusionsThe spread of Ae. koreicus is directed towards south and west from the original infested area, likely due to the dense road connections and the habitat suitability of the new areas. According to these records, northern Italy has a high probability to be invaded by Ae. koreicus in the next decade. These data can be useful to validate predictive models of potential distribution and dispersal of this species in Italy or in Europe.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-1208-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Evaluation of the morphological quality index in the Cordevole river (Bl, Italy)

The European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), which came into force in Italy under Decree Law no. 152 of 3rd April 2006, has as its objectives the protection and improvement of aquatic ecosystem status, promoting the sustainable use of water resources and mitigating the effects of floods and droughts. According to this Directive, the ecological classification of a watercourse should be considered in addition to physical-chemical and biological aspects of its hydromorphological condition, in order to define the deviation of the present condition from a pre-defined reference state. The Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research has promoted a methodology called IDRAIM for the hydromorphological analysis of streams. This is an integrated approach aimed at implementing both WFD and EU Flood Directives (2007/60/EC). In this paper, we describe the application of the morphological quality index (MQI) protocol, which is part of the IDRAIM, used for evaluating the morphological quality of the Cordevole River, Province of Belluno, northeastern Italy. General settings and segmentation of the water network through the use of semi-automatic GIS techniques were presented. The MQI data derived from the application of 28 indicators in 42 reaches were then analysed. Most (48%) of the analysed reaches have a good quality status; 38% have a moderate quality status and poor morphological conditions (14%) are due to the presence of artificial elements and to the limited connectivity between hill-slopes and the river corridor.

The Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of the Carnian Stage (Late Triassic) at Prati di Stuores/Stuores Wiesen Section (Southern Alps, NE Italy)

The Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Carnian Stage (Late Triassic) is defined on the north flank of the Cordevole Valley, on the southern slopes of the crest separating the Badia/Abtei and the Cordevole valleys (46° 31' 37N, 11° 55' 49E) at an elevation of 1980 m, approximately 4.7 km south of San Cassiano/St. Kassian in the Dolomites (Southern Alps). The Prati di Stuores/Stuores Wiesen section (Province of Belluno, Veneto Region, Italy) is located a few hundred meters east of Pralongia, a locality northeast of Arabba (Belluno). The section consists of hemipelagites and thin turbidite beds (both siliciclastic and carbonate intraclastic), deposited below storm wave-base with a high but variable sediment accumulation rate (San Cassiano Fm.). The GSSP boundary is located at the base of bed SW4, 45 m above the base of the San Cassiano Fm. Bed SW4 yielded ammonoids including Daxatina canadensis (Whiteaves), which is the primary global marker for identifying the base of the Carnian Stage. The secondary marker for the Carnian Stage, the conodont Paragondolella polygnathiformis (Budurov and Stefanov), appears 70 cm above the first occurrence of Daxatina canadensis and at the base of a long normal-polarity magnetic zone (S2n) in close proximity to the boundary. Furthermore, the GSSP is located one ammonite subzone just above a level dated at 237.77 ± 0.14 Ma.

Histological analysis of thelohaniasis in white-clawed crayfishAustropotamobius pallipescomplex

Key-words: Thelohania contejeani, Austropotamobius pallipes complex, white-clawed crayfish, north-eastern Italy, histology From 2004 to 2006, a parasitological survey aimed at the detection of the microsporidian parasite Thelohania contejeani Henneguy was carried out on 177 wild white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes complex) captured in six streams and rivers of the province of Belluno in north-eastern Italy. Microscopical examination of the skeletal muscles, and histological analysis applying different histochemical stains to full transverse and sagittal sections of the cephalothorax and abdomen were carried out. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was also conducted on the parasites recovered during the survey. Out of 177 crayfish examined, Thelohania contejeani (Microsporidia, Thelohaniidae) was present in only one crayfish from the Vena d’oro creek. The parasite was detected in the skeletal muscles in several developmental stages, including mature spores, which represented the most common stage recovered. Sporophorous vesicles were also present. Histological examination revealed that the fibres of the skeletal, cardiac and intestinal muscles were filled with spores. Melanin infiltrations were focally present in the infected striated muscles. The gill phagocytic nephrocytes were engulfed by small masses of spores. Among the staining techniques applied, Crossman’s trichrome stain represented the most effective method of detecting T. contejeani.

Moss bags as indicators of trace element contamination in Pre-alpine streams

Moss bags of the aquatic bryophyte Rhynchostegium riparioides (Hedw.) C.E.O. Jensen (=Platyhypnidium riparioides (Hedw.) Dixon) were transplanted into freshwaters of the Province of Belluno (NE Italy). This study was aimed at testing the bioaccumulation of trace elements in Pre-alpine Dolomitic streams, where this species does not grow naturally, and where analyses of water samples have never revealed trace element pollution. Mosses were collected after 13, 26 and 59 days of exposure. The concentrations of nine trace elements in the apical shoots were measured. Average concentrations reached in three control stations were adopted as background values, to calculate the contamination factor (CF). Transplants accumulated trace elements and discriminated between non- or scarcely contaminated waters (low CF) and polluted ones (high CF). Furthermore, two patterns of contamination were revealed by multivariate analysis: (I) metals (Cr, Cu, Ni) from galvanic industries, and (II) metals (Pb, Zn) from other industrial/domestic sources or mine sites.