title: Echoes from the past: a healthy Baltic Sea requires more effort.
abstract: Integrated sediment multiproxy studies and modeling were used to reconstruct past changes in the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Results of natural changes over the past 6000 years in the Baltic Sea ecosystem suggest that forecasted climate warming might enhance environmental problems of the Baltic Sea. Integrated modeling and sediment proxy studies reveal increased sea surface temperatures and expanded seafloor anoxia (in deep basins) during earlier natural warm climate phases, such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Under future IPCC scenarios of global warming, there is likely no improvement of bottom water conditions in the Baltic Sea. Thus, the measures already designed to produce a healthier Baltic Sea are insufficient in the long term. The interactions between climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the Baltic Sea should be considered in management, implementation of policy strategies in the Baltic Sea environmental issues, and adaptation to future climate change.
authors.affiliation: Geological Survey of Finland, P.O. Box 96, 02151, Espoo, Finland, aarno.kotilainen@gtk.fi.
authors.forename: Aarno T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kotilainen
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arppe
authors.forename: Slawomir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dobosz
authors.forename: Eystein
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Karoline
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kabel
authors.forename: Juha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karhu
authors.forename: Mia M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kotilainen
authors.forename: Antoon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuijpers
authors.forename: Bryan C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Lougheed
authors.forename: H E Markus
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moros
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Porsche
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poulsen
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Bjørg
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Risebrobakken
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ryabchuk
authors.forename: Semjon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schimanke
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Snowball
authors.forename: Mikhail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spiridonov
authors.forename: Joonas J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Virtasalo
authors.forename: Kaarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weckström
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Witkowski
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zhamoida
mesh_terms: D001454:Baltic States; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D009792:Oceans and Seas