Radiogenic strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) of vein carbonates play a central role in the tectonometamorphic study of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges and have been used to document fluid sources and fluxes, for example, along major fault zones. In addition, the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of vein carbonates can trace the diagenetic to metamorphic evolution of pore fluids in accreted sediments. Here we present 87Sr/86Sr ratios of vein carbonates from the Infrahelvetic flysch units of the central European Alps (Glarus Alps, Switzerland), which were accreted to the North Alpine fold-and-thrust belt during the early stages of continental collision. We show that the vein carbonates trace the Sr isotopic evolution of pore fluids from an initial seawater-like signature towards the Sr isotopic composition of the host rock with increasing metamorphic grade. This relationship reflects the progressive equilibration of the pore fluid with the host rock and allows us to constrain the diagenetic to low-grade metamorphic conditions of deformation events, including bedding-parallel shearing, imbricate thrusting, folding, cleavage development, tectonic mélange formation and extension. The strontium isotope systematics of vein carbonates provides new insights into the prograde to early retrograde tectonic evolution of the Alpine fold-and-thrust belt and helps to understand the relative timing of deformation events.

Tree rings from temperature-limited environments are highly sensitive climate proxies, widely used to reconstruct past climate parameters for periods prior to the availability of instrumental data and to analyse the effect of recent global warming on tree growth. An analysis of the climatic signal in five high-elevation tree-ring width chronologies of European larch (Larix decidua Mill.) from the tops of five different glacial valleys in the Italian Central Alps revealed that they contain a strong summer-temperature signal and that tree-ring growth is especially influenced by June temperatures. However, a moving correlation function analysis revealed a recent loss of the June temperature signal in the tree-ring chronologies. This signal reduction primarily involves the two lowest-altitude chronologies. It is probable that the observed increasing importance of late-summer temperature for tree-ring growth over the past 50 yr is an effect of the lengthening growing season and of the variations in the climate/tree-ring relationship over time. All the chronologies considered, especially those at the highest altitudes, show an increasing negative influence of June precipitation on tree-ring growth. The climatic signal recorded in tree-ring chronologies from the Italian Central Alps varies over time and is also differentially influenced by climatic parameters according to site elevation.