Renato R. Colucci

The informative publication “Segnali dal Clima in FVG” (Signals from the climate in FVG) provides a local and regional perspective on climate change, specifically tailored for the citizens of Friuli Venezia Giulia region (northeastern Italy). Structured around three core themes - Changes, Impacts and Actions - the publication serves as a bridge between the scientific community and the general public.VISION AND COLLABORATIONThis initiative stems from the Clima FVG Working Group*, a collaborative network of the region’s leading scientific and research institutions. The group operates on the principle that technological and scientific progress must be accompanied by public awareness and education to effectively tackle climate challenges. By translating complex data and information into an engaging, accessible format, the publication bridges the gap between expert research and citizen understanding.CONTENT AND EDITORIAL APPROACHDesigned as an annual popular science magazine, the publication explores a wide array of climate-related themes, including the cryosphere, marine and lagoon ecosystems, forestry, wildlife and terrestrial ecosystems, agriculture, human health and urban settlements, as well as the psychological and social dimensions of climate change. Each issue explores a diverse range of topics, while remaining anchored to some core principles and maintaining key defining features:Local-to-Global Connection: by recalling recent local weather events and by linking regional climate trends to the global climate change, the publication makes a far-reaching issue feel immediate and relevant to the local community;Accessible Storytelling: by providing mini-glossaries, clear explanations, infographics and practical examples, the editorial project enables non-expert readers to understand complex topics without oversimplifying them;Empowerment over Anxiety: by highlighting actionable mitigation and adaptation strategies at both individual and collective levels, the magazine frames climate issues through a constructive lens, aiming to reduce climate-related anxiety and to inspire climate action.PRODUCTION AND STRATEGIC VALUECoordinated by ARPA FVG, the magazine is produced entirely "in-house" through the voluntary contributions of the experts, without dedicated external funding. While the publication is freely available online, limited print editions are produced for policymakers and institutional use.Beyond its educational role, “Segnali dal Clima in FVG” serves as a vital networking tool. The collaborative drafting process fosters interdisciplinary relationships among experts and generates a localized knowledge base that is instrumental in shaping regional climate policy and resilience strategies.AVAILABILITYSegnali dal clima in FVG is available at https://www.arpa.fvg.it/temi/temi/meteo-e-clima/sezioni-principali/cambiamenti-climatici/segnali-dal-clima-in-fvg/The complete PDF version can be browsed online or downloaded. Additionally, individual thematic sections from each edition and summary materials are available for download. The magazine is also being distributed to schools across Friuli Venezia Giulia through the regional environmental education network. *THE CLIMA FVG WORKING GROUPThe Clima FVG Working Group brings together the premier scientific and research institutions working on climate change in Friuli Venezia Giulia region: the Universities of Trieste and Udine, CNR-ISMAR, CNR-ISP, ICTP, OGS. The group was formally established in 2022 by the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia and is coordinated by the Regional Environmental Protection Agency – ARPA FVG.

Rapid mass movements in cold mountain environments are an important geomorphic factor that shapes the landscape, as well as a potential source of geohazard. Although their triggering mechanisms have been investigated in multiple studies, the spatial and temporal distribution of these events is poorly known in most Arctic regions. Among rapid mass movements that can be triggered abruptly by precipitation and snowmelt, we report a large-scale event that involved Central West Greenland in July 2023. Rain-on-snow linked to an atmospheric river event triggered more than 150 slushflows in Disko Island (Qeqertarsuaq). Pre-post event remote sensing imagery was used to map the affected areas, while environmental monitoring data and climate reanalysis products provided insights into the atmospheric river event and its impact on a snow-dominated landscape. During the 18-hour event, cumulative precipitation peaked at 115 mm, with more than 80 mm in several areas among the most affected by debris and snowpack mobilization. We show how the extreme precipitation rates reached during this event are similar to those experienced during a few other rapid mass movement events (i.e., wet-slush avalanches, slush flows, and debris flows) documented in various locations across West Greenland. The implications of such extreme rain-on-snow events in the Arctic are still poorly known. We suggest increasing remote-sensing based efforts to monitor and map rapid mass movements in critical areas of the Arctic, as most of them go unnoticed when infrastructure or large-scale damage are not involved.

High-latitude or high-altitude caves often preserve ice deposits that contain valuable signals of past climate conditions, sometimes even reflecting regional and local atmospheric variability. Phases of aggradation or degradation of underground ice can also provide insights into the temporal evolution of Alpine permafrost. Such data are typically obtained from ice cores, which require a well-constrained chronological framework to be meaningful. In recent years, several dating methods have been developed or refined for glacier and ice sheet cores. However, some of these techniques have not yet been applied to cave ice. In this study, the ³⁹ Ar dating technique using Argon Trap Trace Analysis is applied for the first time to an underground ice deposit in the southeastern Alps, specifically in the Canin-Kanin massif (Julian Alps). The results are compared with pollen markers extracted from the ice, with U-Th dating of cryogenic cave carbonates found in situ within the same ice block, and with radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dating of the water-insoluble organic carbon fraction embedded in the ice. This integrated approach enabled dating the ice deposit to the end of the Little Ice Age, at the onset of the subsequent warming phase.

Mass movements can be triggered abruptly by precipitation and snowmelt and represent potential geohazards. In the polar regions, they are an important contributor to geomorphic change. This study examines a series of slushflows that occurred on Disko Island, Central West Greenland, in July 2023. These rapid mass movements are linked to an atmospheric river event that caused extreme precipitation, markedly increasing snowmelt and runoff. Pre‐ and post‐event remote sensing imagery were used to map the affected areas, while environmental monitoring data and climate reanalysis products provided insights into the atmospheric river event. Almost 200 slushflows were mapped in Disko Island alone. During the 18‐hour event, cumulative precipitation reached 115 mm, with more than 80 mm in several parts of the island, coinciding with the areas most affected by debris and snowpack mobilization. Increasing air moisture transport caused by atmospheric rivers has already been recognized as a contributor to a warmer and wetter Arctic. This work shows how extreme rain‐on‐snow events can trigger rapid mass movements with strong potential impact on landscape and infrastructure, suggesting the need for increased monitoring in remote areas such as Greenland.

The Alpine-Adriatic Meteorological Society (A-AMS), in collaboration with various organizations and institutions active in the Alpe-Adria region, has launched the 'Julian Alps Meteo-Lab' project with the aim of advancing scientific knowledge of this distinctive sector of the Alps. To this end, A-AMS promotes and supports studies related to the meteorology, climate, paleoclimate, and cryosphere of the area.The Julian Alps and Prealps — parts of which lie within the Julian Prealps Natural Park (Italy), designated a UNESCO MAB Reserve in 2019, and the Triglav National Park (Slovenia) — constitute the Alpine region with the highest mean annual precipitation. Moreover, the intensity of individual rain or snow events is often significantly greater than the average severity of similar events across Europe.Furthermore, in the Julian Alps, several small glacial bodies remain active at much lower elevations than in other parts of the Alps due to a combination of local and regional factors. Moreover, the area is affected by pronounced karst development, which predisposes the region to a high density of subsurface cavities, many of which host perennial ice deposits.These observation sites, along with others planned for the future, will be made available online to enable systematic monitoring of the area's meteorological and climatic conditions. Particular emphasis will be placed on making data accessible to the public, not only for scientific purposes but also to support tourism and the local economy. Additionally, the Julian Alps Meteo-Lab was established with an educational mission aimed at promoting courses, seminars, summer schools, and training events to engage both enthusiasts and non-specialists in the scientific activities related to the project.

Small Alpine glaciers located below the regional equilibrium line altitude are experiencing considerable ice loss and are expected to fragment into smaller glacial bodies and eventually disappear. Monitoring such glaciers by satellite remote sensing is often challenging because their size and surrounding topography are incompatible with the current spatial resolution of non-commercial satellites. One of the regions where these challenges are most apparent, and where long-term glacier mass balance data are scarce, are the south-eastern Italian Alps. Here, spread between the Dolomites and the Julian Alps, there are still 13 small glaciers and a few dozen of glacierets and ice patches, along with several permanent snow patches. This study presents a multi-decadal (1980s–2020s) estimation of surface elevation change and geodetic mass balance of current mountain glaciers present in the area, along with a few ice patches. Calculations are based on geodetic data: high resolution and accuracy are obtained with uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), structure from motion (SfM), and airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) methods. SfM on historical aerial imagery has been used for oldest decades, with a focus on the Dolomites area. Recent changes in the smaller ice bodies of the Julian Alps have been less pronounced, owing to favorable topography and the positive feedback from years with extreme snow accumulation. Overall, small glaciers of the southeastern Italian alps show a less negative geodetic mass balance than the mass balance of the reference Alpine glaciers. Most of the volume loss is related to the Marmolada glacier alone. The different rates of ice loss suggest that the feedback mechanisms and the role of debris cover in the final stages of the evolution of these glaciers should be further investigated.

“Segnali dal clima in FVG” (Signals from the climate in Friuli Venezia Giulia region) is an informative publication designed for the general public offering a regional and local perspective on climate change. The magazine explores this complex theme from three perspectives: CHANGES, IMPACTS, ACTIONS.It is born from the commitment of the Clima FVG Working Group, that brings together the region’s leading scientific and research institutions, which share the belief that addressing the challenges posed by climate change to our society requires not only scientific and technological advancements but also widespread public awareness and understanding.To bring the public closer to a topic that is still often perceived as distant, “Segnali dal clima in FVG” presents different facets of climate change starting from the account of events and situations that have recently affected Friuli Venezia Giulia region, while also highlighting how the local dimension is connected to the global one.The basic idea is to draw on the knowledge that the research institutions belonging to the Clima FVG WG constantly elaborate, translating it into accessible and engaging content for the general public. “Segnali dal clima in FVG” takes the form of a popular science magazine, published annually: the articles are collected on a voluntary basis from experts within the Clima FVG WG’s institutions, according to the authors' willingness and topics’ availability. Each year different climate-related themes are explored and highlighted, providing locally relevant knowledge about weather and climate, cryosphere, freshwater, sea, lagoon, ecosystems, agriculture, forests, wildfires, buildings, urban areas, social and psychological issues, animal and human health etc.The story-telling of events and phenomena is accompanied by explanations, mini-glossaries, examples. The magazine’s structure and reading path helps non-expert readers to understand how changes, impacts and actions are connected, showing how climate changes affect the environment and human activities and what mitigation and adaptation actions we can put in place, both at a collective and at an individual level. This should help ease and manage the possible anxiety-inducing effect of part of the information by framing the messages into a constructive perspective.Editorial coordination is managed by ARPA FVG. All the editorial, graphic design and production process is done "in-house" without additional funding.The magazine is published and freely available online. A limited number of copies are printed on paper for institutional purposes and for distribution to policy makers.Further positive outcomes of “Segnali dal clima in FVG” come from the drafting process itself, which involves establishing new relationships with experts from various scientific institutions and the most diverse disciplines, contributing to valuable insights that help shape regional climate policies.

The Adriatic Sea (eastern Mediterranean Basin) is traditionally considered a natural laboratory for studying a number of oceanographic processes of global interest, including coastal dynamics, dense water formation, and thermohaline circulation. More recently, the intensification of the effects of climate change and the increasing awareness of its possible consequences on the natural and socio-economic assets of the Adriatic Basin have opened new research questions and reframed most of the existing ones into a multi-decadal timescale. In this perspective, a description of the possible evolution of the physical oceanographic processes is one of the key requirements for addressing the multi-disciplinary challenges set by climate change, but up to now it has not been possible to combine, for this basin, a sufficiently high resolution in the process description with an estimate of the uncertainty associated with the predictions. This work presents an ensemble modelling approach (AdriE – Adriatic Sea Ensemble) for the kilometre-scale description of hydrodynamics in the Adriatic Sea in an end-of-century time frame. Addressing 3D circulation and thermohaline dynamics within the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS), the ensemble consists of six climate runs encompassing the period from 1987 to 2100 in a severe RCP8.5 scenario forced by the SMHI-RCA4 regional climate model, driven by as many different CMIP5 general climate models made available within the EURO-CORDEX initiative. The climate ensemble is flanked by a dedicated evaluation run for the 1987–2010 period, in which SMHI-RCA4 has been driven by reanalysis fields approximating the best available boundary conditions, thus isolating the intrinsic sources of uncertainty in the RCA4–ROMS modelling chain. In order to allow a direct comparison, the assessment of the model skills in the evaluation run borrows, as far as possible, data and approaches used for the evaluation of a recent kilometre-scale, multi-decadal modelling effort for this region. The model performances are mostly aligned with the state-of-the-art reference. In particular, good results in describing the main features of marine heatwaves and cold spells, such as timing, intensity, and interannual variability, indicate that the AdriE ensemble can effectively be used for studies on the occurrence and effects of thermal extremes in the basin. Future projections suggest an increase in temperature and salinity at upper and intermediate depths, resulting in an overall decrease in water density and possibly in deep ventilation rates. Projected variations are stronger in summer and autumn, and in these seasons the ensemble range is larger than the spatial variability of the quantities and occasionally comparable with the intensity of the climate signal, highlighting the importance of an ensemble approach to treat the climate variability at this timescale. The dataset presented in this study, which can be used for the analysis of coastal and continental margin processes of general interest, is fully available upon request to the corresponding author, and monthly averages of the main quantities are available for each run on a dedicated Zenodo repository.

Small Alpine glaciers located below the regional equilibrium line altitude are experiencing considerable ice loss and are expected to fragment into smaller glacial bodies and eventually disappear. Monitoring such glaciers by satellite remote sensing is often challenging because their size and surrounding topography are incompatible with the current spatial resolution of non-commercial satellites. The Italian Dolomites (southeastern Alps) are a region clearly illustrating such challenges and where no long-term glacier mass balance data are available. This renowned Alpine sector hosted tens of glaciers up until a few decades ago, with now only 12 remaining. This study presents a multi-decadal (1980s–2023) estimation of surface elevation change and geodetic mass balance of the current mountain glaciers present in the area. Calculations are based on geodetic data: high resolution and accuracy are obtained with uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), structure from motion (SfM), and airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) methods, from 2010 to 2023. SfM on historical aerial imagery is used for previous decades. We found an average cumulative surface elevation change of -28.7±2.6 m from 1980s to 2023, 33 % of which occurred between 2010–2023. The average geodetic mass balance rate for the whole period is -0.64±0.06 mw.e.yr-1 (water equivalent), varies widely among sites, and is less negative than the Alpine reference glaciers' mass balance. Regionally, 66 % of the volume loss is related to the Marmolada glacier alone. Losses of ice mass and area show that the Dolomites are rapidly losing their glaciers.

The Adriatic Sea, located in the northeastern Mediterranean basin, is well representative of processes and pressures that typically affect mid-latitude coastal seas.The Adriatic Ensemble (AdriE), a multi-decadal, kilometre-scale ocean model, has recently been developed to describe ocean processes in the Adriatic Sea under a severe (RCP8.5) climate scenario extending to the end of this century. Addressing 3-D circulation and thermohaline dynamics within the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS), AdriE consists of 6 climatic runs encompassing the period from 1987 to 2100 in a RCP8.5 scenario forced by the SMHI-RCA4 Regional Climate Model, driven by as many different General Climate Models made available within the EURO-CORDEX Initiative. In the present contribution we complement eulerian and lagrangian analysis techniques to investigate how climate change will affect the main hydrodynamic processes in this basin, with particular reference to key features for this area such as dense water production, pollutant transport, and ecological connectivity.This work lays the foundation for a deeper interdisciplinary assessment of future scenarios in the region and the development of potential management strategies.