Thermal structure of the northwest Atlantic during the Quaternary

Ocean circulation is a critical component of the earth's climate system, which it affects via its
capacity to store and redistribute heat between the atmosphere, surface ocean, and deep
ocean. In particular, AMOC variability is linked to changes in the mean position of the Intertropical
Convergence Zone, regional warming in the Nordic Seas, and has even been invoked
as a player in abrupt paleoclimate shifts. Ocean temperature is both a tracer and driver of
ocean circulation, and given the strong link between ocean circulation and climate,
determining the temperature evolution of the oceans is vital in order to develop a better
understanding of past climate change. Since modern observations are limited to the last ~150
years at most, paleoceanographic proxies are required to reconstruct past changes in ocean
circulation beyond the instrumental record. Over the last few decades there has been
remarkable progress in the development of elemental and isotopic proxies, including
refinements in foraminiferal Mg/Ca and clumped isotope paleothermometry. When used in
combination, these proxies have the potential to deliver robust estimates of oceanic thermal
structure and will therefore provide new insights into past ocean circulation that will enable the
testing and improvement of climate model simulations used for future predictions.