The coastal oceans exhibit rapid changes which are driven both by global changes and by natural and human influences on more regional scales. Natural climate variability and human activities cause numerous abiotic and biotic reactions in the coastal seas on a large variety of time and space scales.

At present scales and extent of external forcing - climate variability, man-made climate change, loads and use of land and sea space - can be described quantitatively rather well. Yet, there are considerable gaps in knowledge about the temporal and spatial propagation of change through the coastal sea`s ecosystems in many aspects: from changes of internal hydrographic and sedimentary processes to the respective changes in species composition and abundance and related energy flow and matter cycles.

Conference contributions will address state of the art and progress in the research about acclimation to changes in forcing and respective regulation cascades including new methodological approaches and model activities. The Baltic Sea is emphasized, however, results should also be presented in a generic context of the coastal seas of the globe.

The BSSC gathers broad expertise in all relevant disciplines for a system approach in coastal sea research and thus will act as the ideal forum for addressing this challenging topic.

• How are the changes in external forcing mediated into the Baltic Sea system?
• How to identify, define and quantify thresholds, switches, bottle necks and key species processes in the system response to changes in external forcing?
• Are there typical temporal and spatial scales for acclimation and regulation as response to different forcing?
• How do the sediments mirror system changes by proxy-variables?
• What role does the diversity play in habitat, communities and functional genes for ecosystem functioning?