Study sites                                                                                             

Our sites form two regional foci — eastern Beringia (Alaska and Yukon) and the NW Atlantic (Baffin, Greenland, and Iceland) — where similarities and differences in the timing and intensity of past climatic changes provide information on the circulation of the linked ocean-atmosphere system. Most of our proxies attest to changes in summer temperature, and our two focus regions are more strongly correlated with summer temperature changes related to the Arctic Oscillation (AO) than anywhere. Contrasts between the two sides of the Atlantic are needed to distinguish the multi-modal, dynamical response of climate change involving the AO from a hemispheric pattern of overall climate change. We are teaming up with international collaborators from Europe who are generating comparable records from the NE Atlantic, and with Canadian colleagues to develop an Arctic-wide network of proxy sites.