Thermogravimetry ( TG) and differential thermal analysis ( DT A) are widely used to characterize several biological materials such as biomolecules , cells and tissues ( 1 , 2). In particular, while the former measures the variation of mass from a sample as a function of temperature , the latter records the ent halpy accompanying physico-chemical changes of substances subjected to temperature variations. Besides, these techniques can bring structural and thermodynamic information not only on the starting samples , but also on substances that originate in the thermal cycle. However , there are few ecological studies which involve thermal analysis. [...]