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In this article, we show that the recent financial crisis has significantly affected the potential total factor productivity (TFP) of the four largest euro area economies, as well as that of the rest of the euro area. We used a reduced-form equation of TFP, based on an approach recently developed by Cahn and Saint-Guilhem (2010). Our empirical findings show that the permanent impact on potential TFP varies across countries from -3.9 points to -1.3 points in Q2 2012. When these losses are incorporated, TFP gaps develop closely in line with capacity utilization rates (CUR). Moreover, in the case of France, including CUR in our TFP model improves the quasi-real-time reliability of TFP gap estimates.

The analysis of plant macrofossils in peatland ecosystems has been widely used for the climatic and ecological reconstruction of the Holocene in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. By contrast, perhaps associated with rarity of these ecosystems, this proxy has barely been explored for southern Europe. In this work, a compilation and review of existing knowledge on the study of plant macrofossils of peatlands in southern Europe has been carried out, both from a paleoenvironmental perspective and in terms of biodiversity dynamics. Although small in surface area, the peatlands of southern Europe stand out for their diversity (botanical, edaphogenic, morphological, etc.), which has allowed the recovery of a large number of macrofossils from both vascular plants and bryophytes. The southern zone of Europe contains refuge zones with a high plant diversity that have not suffered the intense glaciation of the northern zones, this allows a continuous record since the beginning of the Holocene and the detection of climatic events in lower latitudes, where the ice recession was earlier.

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