A study of changes in siliceous microfossil assemblages and chemical analyses in a well‐dated offshore sediment core from the Bornholm Basin, southwestern Baltic Sea, is carried out with the objective of increasing knowledge of the Holocene history of the area. The core covers about 11300 calendar years from the brackish phase of the Yoldia Sea stage to the present. The first weak marine influence in the Ancylus Lake stage is recorded about 10100 cal. yr BP (c. 8900 14C BP), indicating a complex transition to the Litorina Sea with different phases of brackish‐water inflow. The lithology, organic carbon content and C/N and C/S ratios indicate no major changes in the sedimentary environment during the Litorina‐Post‐Litorina Sea stages. A high productivity event recorded in the Post‐Litorina Sea stage around 950 cal. yr BP correlates with the Medieval warm event. A biostratigraphical change indicating a colder climate is recorded in the sediment at about 800 cal. yr BP, which might mark the beginning of the Little Ice Age.
Understanding how long-term abiotic and biotic processes are linked at a landscape level is of major interest for analyzing future impact on humans and the environment from present-day societal planning. This article uses results derived from multidisciplinary work at a coastal site in Sweden, with the aim of describing future landscape development. First, based on current and historical data, we identified climate change, shoreline displacement, and accumulation/erosion processes as the main drivers of landscape development. Second, site-specific information was combined with data from the Scandinavian region to build models that describe how the identified processes may affect the site development through time. Finally, the process models were combined to describe a whole interglacial period. With this article, we show how the landscape and ecosystem boundaries are affected by changing permafrost conditions, peat formation, sedimentation, human land use, and shoreline displacement.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-013-0407-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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