Coastlines of the Baltic Sea – Zones of Competition Between Geological Processes and a Changing Climate: Examples from the Southern Baltic - The Baltic Sea Basin - page 152

Fig. 7.2 The Baltic Sea and the change of coastlines since the onset of the Littorina Transgression
about 7700 years BP (modified from Harff et al. 2007 ) . Red colours mark areas of regression and
blue colours areas of transgression
For studies of coastline change the Baltic Sea serves as an excellent natural lab-
oratory as isostatic uplift in the North has caused continuous regression of the sea
during the last 8000 years, whereas in the South climatically controlled sea level rise
superimposed with subsidence of the earth's crust is responsible for a transgression
between the Belt Sea and the Curonian spit in the Southeast. Figure 7.2 shows areas
of Holocene transgression and regression based on a map published by Harff et al.
( 2007 ) .
The main environmental change within the areas of investigation was due to the
inflow of marine water via the Danish straits about 8000 years BP changing the
freshwater environment into a brackish-marine one. This salt water inflow is called
“Littorina Transgression” named by the fossil beach snail Littorina littorea .
Along the subsiding coasts the permanent transgression has affected also pro-
cesses of morphogenesis that can be studied in an exceptional manner here.
Therefore, for a subregional study the southern Baltic Sea coast has been investi-
gated in detail within the frame of the research project SINCOS, “Sinking Coasts -
Geosphere, Ecosphere, and Anthroposphere of the Holocene Southern Baltic Sea”
(Harff and Lüth 2009 ) . In this study light is also shed on the Wismar Bight at the
southwestern Baltic coast where detailed geological and archaeological studies have