Within the framework of the research project PALEX (Paleoclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region – Levante: Paleohydrology and Extreme Flood Events) sedimentologists, hydrologists and geochemists from Germany, Israel and Palestine are carrying out joint research. Model scenarios for the Dead Sea region predict increasing drought with progressing global warming. This would affect millions of people living in this region.

The aim of the DFG project PRO-HYDRO is to trace back the sediment sources of the annually laminated sediments archived in the Dead Sea. Tracing sediment sources can uncover the sediment contributions of the large perennial Jordan River and smaller contributions of Wadi Systems that are mostly active during extreme precipitation events (flash floods).

To comprehensively understand the impact of rapid climate change in the southern Baltic Sea region and to distinguish between natural and human forcing, the BaltRap network (coordinated by the IOW Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde) aims at integrating high-resolution marine (Baltic Sea sediments) and terrestrial (lake sediments and tree rings) proxy archives.

The aim of the BMBF project PalMod is a transient simulation of global climatic changes for the complete last Glacial-Interglacial cycle, i.e. the last 130.000 years. Palaeoclimate data from different proxy archives will be used for validating the modelling results. Within the PalMod work package WP 3.2, which is coordinated by GFZ Section 4.3, existing high-resolution palaeoclimate datasets will be compiled, synchronized and evaluated with regard to climate sensitivity and chronological uncertainties.

Within the frame of the international geoscientific graduate school for geosciences StRATEGy (IGK2018; funding by German Science Foundation DFG und the state of Brandenburg) we investigate two lake sediment profiles in the Andes in NW Argentina together with our partners from Jujuy University.

The high-resolution multi-proxy study at the unique geoarchive of the Tayma palaeolake or sabkha, respectively, will generate records of climate-, landscape-, and settlement-related parameters including microfacies distribution, mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, inorganic and organic carbon and nitrogen, stable isotopes, element contents, micro- and macrofauna, diatoms, lipid biomarkers, pollen and 14C dating.

Laminated sediments recovered from the maar lake Lago Grande di Monticchio in southern Italy provide detailed information about the regional climatic and environmental development and unique chronostratigraphic information about the explosive activity of nearby (100-540 km) Quaternary Italian volcanoes.

Chronostratigraphic investigation of two recently discovered dry maars of late-Pleistocene age close to Mýtina (CZ) and Neualbenreuth (DE)

High-resolution sedimentary records from several locations over the globe that cover up to four glacial-interglacial cycles are being studied for their paleoclimatic properties as well as for their paleomagnetic information.

Long-term temperature reconstructions derived from trees growing well within their latitudinal or altitudinal limits in European lowlands are missing, which is a crucial gap in the palaeoclimate database. Therefore, the aim of the project is to establish and advance cell structure measurements as a new proxy for temperature reconstructions in the temperate lowlands of Northeastern Germany and Northern Poland.

Central Asia, extending between the Caucasus and the eastern Tibetan Plateau, with a semiarid/arid belt with water shortage to the west and a glaciered mountainous area with very unstable surface conditions to the east, holds a key position for understanding geodynamic and climate processes.

The TERENO Northeastern German Lowland Observatory (TERENO-Northeast) is one of four German observatories assessing the effects of global change at a regional level. TERENO-Northeast combines extensive field monitoring of recent processes with geoarchive data, particularly from lake sediments and tree rings, to find answers to the effects of global change, one of the key challenges of the 21st century.

With our lake monitoring at Tiefer See we aim at a better understanding of seasonal sedimentation processes and their controlling factors as well as observing the impacts of ongoing climate change on the lake system.

Theme of the Virtual Institute for Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analyses ICLEA is the better understanding of the Dynamics of Climate and Landscape Evolution of Cultural Landscapes in the Northern Central European Lowlands since the Last Ice Age.

The Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regionale Klimaänderungen/Regional climate change) is a consortium of eight research centres within the Helmholtz Association. For an improved estimation of future climate change researchers need information on time duration, rate, frequency and regional patterns of long and short term climate fluctuations. A review into the earth's history forms the basis of understanding climate reaction and dynamics in comparison with changes in external forcing and internal feedback processes.