Changing sea levels and (semi-)terrestrial landscape development in the Baltic Sea coastal area, with special attention to the role of the Darss Sill

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The interpretation of fragmentary submarine sediment cores is severely hampered by the absence of high quality studies into the Late Weichselian and Holocene vegetation development of Baltic NE Germany. This project will provide a chronologically detailed and spatially explicit model of the development of the hinterland of the coastal cultures (including the presently flooded area) of the whole study area between Fehmarn and Oder during the Holocene. This will be done by integrating all available palynological information and by analyzing additional high-resolution cores from near-coastal valley peatlands in NE Germany. Macrofossil and palynological analysis in transects across the Recknitz and Peene valleys will also be used to reconstruct Holocene Baltic Sea water levels on both sides of the Darss Sill. As mires may raise the water level autogenously and may become increasingly more resilient against climatic and hydrologic changes, the thresholds for sea level rise will be identified by distinguishing between external forcing and autonomous peatland growth. In combination with the analysis and interpretation of cores and samples from the other SINCOS studies, this enables the detailed assessment of changes in the natural environment during the Holocene and the calibration of the SINCOS climate, sea level, and integration models.