Description
Project will be: monitoring of climate change impact of climate changes on ecosystems risk of climate changes Reconstruct mid to late Holocene climate from eastern Nordic Seas to Baltic Sea. Reconstruction will be used in model simulations to identify forcing factors Co-operation of scientific teams, subsampling of sediment cores; Project workshops and the final conference; educational plans to be implemented for MSc and PhD students involved in ClimLink Creating new types of data; establishment of new expertise and equipment needed to build on the new expertise at FGS Dissemination of ClimLink achievements on a wide international scale; during the project run time a direct connection will be established between the project partners and regional stakeholders Provide knowledge to 3 levels: scientific community, stakeholders and the public Involving the members into cooperation will strengthen the partners and knowledge exchange Involving the members of ClimLink on an institutional base will constitute a better integration of the University of Szczecin into the ERA. The collaboration with the partners will serve partnership between US and other countries
Summary of project results
Climate change has a strong impact on ecosystem health of marginal seas, like Baltic. Amplitude of climate fluctuations in and around the Nordic Seas increase from the mid- to late Holocene which may have implications for the amplitude of ecosystem changes of the Baltic region. Detailed climate linkages between the North Atlantic and Baltic in the past, before the project ClimLink, were not studied and there was a lack of baseline for future projections on the development of ecosystems. Main objective of the project was to monitor past climate induced ecosystem changes in the eastern Nordic Seas, Central and Western Skagerrak and in the Baltic Sea, and to detect and identify climatic linkages and common forcing factors driving climate change in these regions. The objectives were addressed through reconstructions of surface, subsurface and bottom water characteristics. Temperature, salinity and ventilation, were reconstructed through a range of methods, including diatoms, foraminifera, stable isotopes (δ18O and δ13C) and Mg/Ca ratio. Relative changes in paleoproductivity were estimated by organic carbon fluxes. An extensive effort was put into establishment of well-defined chronological framework, based on 210Pb, 137Cs, 14C and identification of ash horizons, for all sites studied. Records of interpreted inflow changes and records relating to the enhanced outflow episodes have been identified. The long-term record of inflow related proxies show two major periods of salinity changes signalling inflow activity, seen both in the bottom water and surface water environment, documenting that the Baltic Sea responds to enhanced inflow of saline Atlantic Water. The degree to which inflows and outflows are connected is more difficult to assess, and no clear link is seen at millennial time scales. The records we have obtained from the sediment cores indicate that the environmental changes are to a large extent unforced by external factors. Similarities between the records from the Baltic Sea, the Skagerrak and beyond is not visually obvious. However, relative to forcing some common responses exist. It is likely that much of the variability is more internal, with the exception of some phases of combined solar and volcanic forcing. The project gave young researchers wide opportunities to strengthen their scientific curricula and to collaborate with top-tier Norwegian professionals on reconstruction and forecasting climate change. The project has become a platform for researchers working in different regions and interrelating the interactions of the studied regions.
Summary of bilateral results
The ClimLink project consisted of four scientific work packages (WPs) and two administrative ones. Scientific WPs were implemented in equal division between the promoter and the project partner - two WPs by the Polish and two by the Norwegian side. The results obtained after the compilation are consistent and allow us to draw conclusions about climate change over the time period exceeding 6,000 years. Both sides of the Partnerships for ClimLink project are focusing their research on other regions. Neither the Partner nor the Promoter of the project would be able to obtain complementary results without the bilateral co-operation and exchange of knowledge, research methods and data. Without bilateral funds, there would be no chance for long-standing close cooperation between Polish and Norwegian scientists. Formal partnership developed during the project allowed for closer cooperation, exchange of personnel for training purposes, extension of researcher's network to organizations co-working with Promoter and Partner. Within the framework of the partnership, several attempts have been made to raise funds for further research and another Norwegian funding is planned, if available for the Polish side. The partnership in the ClimLink project has enabled especially for young researchers wide educational opportunities to strengthen the scientific workshop as well as improving the level of a foreign language. Visits of Norwegian partners in Poland provided an opportunity to have seminars, contributing to the dissemination of knowledge on climate change, and acquaintance of a wide range of scientists and students with the latest research findings in this field. Students at three levels of education - PhD, MSc and BSc had the opportunity to collaborate with top-tier Norwegian professionals on reconstruction and forecasting climate change and learn from top scientists, including: how to interpret the test results and present them to a wide range, not necessarily specialists.