Palynological diagram of the peat bog near Pavullo nel Frignano (Modena, Italy) in the framework of Tuscan/Emilian Apennines vegetation history.

A pollen diagram drawn for a peat bog located at San Pellegrino, in a vast plain at 675 m a.s.1. near Pavullo nel Frignano (Modena, Italy), is of vegetation on the northern slope of the Tuscan/Emilian Apennines. This altitude is just below the lower limit of the Fagus‐Abies belt.The sequence, 20 m in depth, consists mostly of clayey sediments in its lower part, the upper part prevalently formed by peat. The upper complex is dated by 14C at 10,790 yr B.P. and 2590 yr B.P., the lower part of the sequence is dated by chronological comparison with Chiarugi's diagram (1950) and subsequent 14C updates (Bertolani Marchetti, 1985).The sequence apparently begins after 16,950 yr B.P., because its lower part does not reach the Salix tundra/Artemisia steppe located at the bottom of Chiarugi's diagram. The period of general dominance of Pinus over the existing Fagus and oak mixed forest runs from about 20 m and 12 m. The Lanscombe (?), Dryas I and Bölling phases fall here.After a hiatus that may contain the Dryas II from 10.9 m to 10.5 m, Pinus and Quercus alternate. The lateglacial seems to end here, with oscillation of the Alleröd and Dryas III, and the Postglacial (Preboreal and Boreal) begins.The Atlantic period consists of mixed oak forest, well represented and separated from the Subboreal by a strong contrast of Pinus/Abies peaks. The beginning of the Subatlantic is marked by a strong peak of Corylus.In the Subboreal, Tilia disappears from the oak mixed forest, that takes on the aspect of a Querceto‐carpinetum of the plain and increases in percentage notwithstanding a climatic involution.In the Subatlantic, vegetation conditions of the plain are wholly established.