Editorial: Changing flora and vegetation in Italy through time

The 9th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, which was held in Padua (Italy) on 26 to 31 August 2014, provided a unique and excellent opportunity to reunite the community of palaeobotanists and palynologistsworking in Italy, to realize the volume “Changing flora and vegetation in Italy through time”. This includes a large variety of contributions representing the growing and diversified research activities on palaeobotanical and palynological issues in Italy. The compilation of this special issue has afforded a good opportunity for scientific discussions and updating of various topics dealing with the history of flora and vegetation in the Italian territory. The 18 manuscripts included in this volume, often developed in close collaboration among colleagues from different European countries, attest to the rich and varied geological context of the Italian territory, as well as the complex role of the different palaeoenvironmental factors acting at local to global scales over a long time-interval, since the Palaeozoic. At the same time this volume is a tribute to the Italian palaeobotanists that since the last century laid the foundations for the current wealth of investigations.