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Abstract:
In the context of global change, the Southern African region has to address great challenges in terms of its natural resources, in particular to cope with the impact of climate and land use change on the water balance, the soil fertility and the quantity of land suitable for common requirements. In the BMBF-funded project GeoArchives researchers from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Technical University of Munich and Senckenberg am Meer jointly exploit diverse Southern African archives of landscape development and climate change. The examination of these terrestrial and marine archives will provide deep insights into the climatic evolution and environmental conditions in Southern Africa during the Holocene. The highly interdisciplinary approach integrates geomorphology, soil science, sedimentology, inorganic and organic geochemistry, geomicrobiology and remote sensing. By assessing the possible impact of future climate change and land-use change on specific sensitive environments in Southern Africa we will provide future-oriented earth system management strategies with a geoscience rationale.