Alpine soils can provide valuable paleo-environmental information, representing a powerful tool for paleoclimate reconstruction. However, since Pleistocene glaciations and erosion-related processes erased most of the pre-existing landforms and soils, reconstructing soil and landscape development in high-mountain areas can be a difficult task. In particular, a relevant lack of information exists on the transition between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM ~21,000 yr BP) and the Holocene (~11,700 yr BP), with this climatic shift that plays a crucial role for environmental thresholds identification. The present study aims at reconstructing the history and origin of hidden paleosols inside periglacial blockstreams and blockfields on a high-elevation Alpine plateau (Stolenberg Plateau) above 3000 m a.s.l., in the Northwestern Italian Alps. The results indicate that these soils recorded the main warming climatic phases occurred from the end of the LGM until the Late Holocene ~4000 yr BP. Our reconstructions, together with the high carbon stocks of these paleosols, suggest that during warming phases the environmental conditions on the Plateau were suitable for plant life and pedogenesis, already since 22,000–21,000 yr BP. These paleosols reasonably evidence the existence of a Lateglacial Nunatak representing, to our knowledge, one of the first documented relict non-glacial surfaces in the high-elevated European Alps. Thus, the Stolenberg Plateau provides important information about past climate and surface processes since the end of LGM, suggesting new perspectives on the long-term landscape evolution of the high European Alps.

高山土壤可以提供有价值的古环境信息，是古气候重建的有力工具。然而，由于更新世冰川和侵蚀相关过程抹去了大部分原有的地貌和土壤，重建高山地区的土壤和景观发展可能是一项艰巨的任务。特别是，关于末次盛冰期（LGM ~21,000 yr BP）和全新世（~11,700 yr BP）之间过渡的相关信息缺乏，这种气候变化对环境阈值识别起着至关重要的作用。本研究旨在重建位于意大利西北部阿尔卑斯山海拔 3000 米以上的高海拔高山高原（斯托伦堡高原）上的冰缘石块流和石块场内隐藏的古土壤的历史和起源。结果表明，这些土壤记录了从LGM结束到全新世晚期~4000 yr BP发生的主要变暖气候阶段。我们的重建以及这些古土壤的高碳储量表明，在变暖阶段，高原上的环境条件适合植物生命和土壤发生，自 22,000-21,000 年 BP 以来。这些古土壤合理地证明了晚冰期 Nunatak 的存在，据我们所知，它是欧洲高海拔阿尔卑斯山最早记录的非冰川遗迹遗迹之一。因此，斯托伦堡高原提供了自 LGM 结束以来过去气候和地表过程的重要信息，为欧洲高阿尔卑斯山的长期景观演变提供了新的视角。