This project deals with the paleoclimate of the region that extends from the Eastern Canadian Arctic eastward to Greenland and Iceland. This is an area that is critical for the integration of present and past records of climatic change, especially within the context of the Arctic System Science Program (ARCSS research agenda. The main objectives of the research will be to concentrate on the evaluation, synthesis and interpetation of: i) instrumental records; ii) historical data sources from Iceland; iii) the GISP2 isotopic time-series; iv) high-resolution marine series near East Greenland; and v) annually laminated lake records from Southeast Baffin Island and Iceland. The project will include an analysis of climate impact in Iceland in recent centuries. Thus, although focussing on paleoclimatic reconstruction and interpretation, the research also has a human dimensions perspective and links directly with the needs of the new ARCSS Paleo initiative (Archeology and Ethnohistory) regarding the documentation and understanding of the role of climatic variations in the Norse expansion throughout the North Atlantic, and human responses to the so- called "Medieval Warm Period" and Little Ice Age". In conlcusion, the overall goal is directed towards improving the understanding of annual to century timescale fluctuations of climate in this region, as well as the influences of such changes on Humankind.
