“BaltRap“: The Baltic Sea and its southern Lowlands: proxy – environment interactions in times of Rapid change

The coupled marine-terrestrial system of the Baltic Sea and its southern lowlands  is highly sensitive to both  natural  climate  forcing and  human impact. To comprehensively understand the impact of rapid climate change in the southern Baltic Sea region (SBSR) and to distinguish between natural and human forcing, our  BaltRap  network aims, for the first time,  at  integrating  high-resolution marine  (sediments)  and terrestrial  (lake  sediments  and tree  rings)  proxy  archives. Considering the wide range of temporal and spatial scales involved in shaping system  dynamics,  we expect  significant  differences in  the response  time  and magnitude  of  the considered  environments.  Beyond instrumental observations  only  a  rigorous proxy development,  testing, and application tailored to  the different  bio-  and  geo-archives  based on precise and accurate chronologies  will enable us to address the following main goals:  1. Comprehensive  understanding of  the environmental responses  and response times  of marine and terrestrial/limnic systems to gradual changes, major climatic transitions, and short-term climate oscillations during the Holocene 2.  Integration and precise synchronization of the various proxy records from brackish/marine and terrestrial/limnic systems  in the  SBSR  to grasp the  entire range of  interactions between the Baltic Sea and its adjacent terrestrial systems 3. Distinction of  natural variability  from  the increasing influence of human societies in the later Holocene (particularly in the last century) to better project 21st century dynamics.