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Multi-archive studies of climate events and archive-specific response times require synchronous time scales. Aligning common variations in the cosmogenic radionuclide production rate via curve fitting methods provides a tool for the continuous synchronization of natural environmental archives down to decadal precision. Based on this approach, we synchronize 10Be records from Western Gotland Basin (WGB, Baltic Sea) and Lake Kälksjön (KKJ, central Sweden) sediments to the 14C production time series from the IntCal20 calibration curve during the Mid-Holocene period ~6400 to 5200 a BP. Before the synchronization, we assess and reduce non-production variability in the 10Be records by using 10Be/9Be ratios and removing common variability with the TOC record from KKJ sediments based on regression analysis. The synchronizations to the IntCal20 14C production time scale suggest decadal to multi-decadal refinements of the WGB and KKJ chronologies. These refinements reduce the previously centennial chronological uncertainties of both archives to about ± 20 (WGB) and ±40 (KKJ) years. Combining proxy time series from the synchronized archives enables us to interpret a period of ventilation in the deep central Baltic Sea basins from ~6250 to 6000 a BP as possibly caused by inter-annual cooling reducing vertical water temperature gradients allowing deep water formation during exceptionally cold winters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marine-terrestrial Baltic ecosystem is sensitive to a range of environmental forcing and thresholds. Multi-archive investigations of its evolution require a precise synchronization of the considered archives. Here, we apply globally common cosmogenic radionuclide production rate variations to synchronize 10Be records from brackish Western Gotland Basin (Baltic Sea) and terrestrial lake Tiefer See (NE Germany) sediments to the atmospheric 14C time-scale and investigate phase-relationships in proxy responses in the southern Baltic realm associated with the onset of a centennial Mid-Holocene climate oscillation ∼5800 a BP. Based on paired molybdenum and titanium records, we identify a 98 ± 81-year delay in Western Gotland Basin ventilation, compared to the terrestrial response at the onset of the recorded Mid-Holocene climate oscillation. Most plausible mechanism for this delay is strengthened stratification in response to enhanced freshwater input during the first decades of the oscillation. • 10Be used for synchronizing Baltic Sea and terrestrial lake sediment records. • Synchronous southern Baltic sediment records of environmental variability. • Subcentennial delay in Western Gotland Basin ventilation during the Mid-Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]