In this 7^th edition we proposed an interdisciplinary scientific event focusing on past and current climate and environmental changes in the Carpathian and Black Sea Region since the Last Glacial Maximum. The conference aims to provide more insight into the most recent advances in geoscience and paleoscience and to support regional collaboration in research, which is still understated despite the fact that significant steps have been taken in recent years.

GCBS 2023 can be regarded as a follow-up event on the previous conferences and workshops organized by our team from 2011 to 2022 which have provided a good framework for sharing research and collaboration for further investigation of the Carpathian – Lower Danube – Balkan region.

This scientific event was an initiative of the University of Suceava (Applied Sciences Doctoral School) in collaboration with the Geoconcept Association of Applied Geography, supported by the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) and Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization (MCID) and endorsed by Carpathian Climate and Environment Working Group-CarpClim (PAGES), Science for Carpathians (S4C) and the Carpathian Convention (CC).

The 7th edition of the Landscape Archaeology Conference is the first edition to take place in Eastern Europe. Around the word togetherness LAC2022 has gathered the six themes of the conference: Responsibility, Defragmentation, Integration, Sensitivity, Explanation, and Comprehension and Cooperation.

The main conference part of LAC2022 is held online with the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași as main organiser. The two onsite sections of LAC2022 are supported by the University of Suceava (Geography Department) and the GEOCONCEPT Association of Applied Geography. Both the online and onsite parts of LAC2022 are endorsed by the International Association of Landscape Archaeology (IALA).

For this 7th edition of the bi-annual LAC conference (IALA) we offer two interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary onsite sections focusing on Human-Earth interaction from the Quaternary to the Anthropocene and Perspectives through palaeoscience for future environmental sustainability in Europe.

Environmental data is demonstrating significant changes to contemporary climate systems globally and locally, affecting landscape system thresholds and altering the spatial pattern, intensity and magnitude of landscape processes. Whilst empirical evidence demonstrates that destabilized ecological systems can repair, the extent of human of landscape modification from infrastructure, modern farming and forestry exacerbate environmental problems leading to catastrophe for both the natural environment as well as the indigenous population. In this session we aim to make advances in the truly interdisciplinary fields contributing to the study of landscapes, and specifically anthropogenic landscape dynamics. In the Anthropocene human activities are leaving a significant signature on the Earth, by altering its morphology and ecosystems.

Paleoscience has advanced the understanding of present-day vegetation composition and structure, landscape dynamics, disturbance regimes and effects of climate change on the environment by unlocking information of their past variability from natural archives. Disentangling the complex interactions between climate, vegetation, humans and the environment over timescales ranging from decades to millennia is essential to establish adequate baselines to predict potential environmental threshold responses under future scenarios of climate variability and anthropogenic disturbance.

This Special Issue contains all the contributions presented at In the 5th edition of this Regional Climate and Environment Dynamics, were we proposed an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific event focusing on climate and environmental changes in the Central and Eastern Europe region since the Last Glacial Maximum. We envisage that this conference provided more insight into the most recent advances in geosciences and help enhance regional collaboration in research, which is still understated, albeit significant steps have been taken in recent years.

Our conference can be regarded as a follow-up event on the previous our conferences organized by our team in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2021, which have provided a good framework for sharing research and collaboration for further investigation of the Carpathian-Lower Danube-Balkan Region.

The conference was an initiative of the Department of Geography, University of Suceava and Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization (Romania), endorsed by Past Global Changes (PAGES), Mountain Research Initiative, Science for Carpathians and Carpathian Convention and supported by Association of Applied Geography GEOCONCEPT  and was held in Vatra Dornei (Romania), a traditional town in the picturesque region of Bukowina, between  24 and 27 November 2022.

In the 4th edition of this PAGES-supported meeting, we proposed an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific event focusing on climate and environmental changes in the Carpathian-Balkan region since the Last Glacial Maximum. We envisage that this workshop will provide more insight into the most recent advances in paleosciences and help enhance regional collaboration in research, which is still understated, albeit significant steps have been taken in recent years.

The conference was an initiative of the Association of Applied Geography GEOCONCEPT, endorsed by Past Global Changes (PAGES), Mountain Research Initiative, Carpathian Convention and the Geography Department, University of Suceava