The ocean around Iceland offers a high potential in terms of paleoceanographic studies. There are great contrasts in water mass properties and strong atmospheric forcing in the area. The two primary water masses around Iceland are of very different origins and properties. The Irminger Current (IC) branches from the North Atlantic Current at about 26°W latitude. The flow pattern is partly affected by the bathymetry of the Reykjanes Ridge. The current is deflected north when it is west of the ridge crest and south when it is east of it. This is due to the conservation of potential vortices when crossing the Reykjanes Ridge. The IC transports relatively warm and salty water in clockwise direction around Iceland. It travels along the western and northwestern coast until it meets cold and fresh polar water north of Iceland transported by the East Greenland Current from the Arctic Ocean. This combination of cold and warm water masses then flows along the northern and eastern coast as the East Icelandic Current (EIC). In this study we present three cores on transect following the flow of the IC, more precisely in Faxafloi, Djupall and Jokulfirdir (figure 1). Today the Faxafloi core site, MD99-2256, is bathed in the warmest and most saline water mass of the sites. The mean summer bottom water temperature is c. 8°C and at the surface c. 11°C. The Djupall core site, MD99-2264, north of Faxafloi has relatively colder mean summer bottom/surface temperatures around 6°C. This core site is in close proximity to the Polar Front and can assumable record any fluctuations in the IC. The Jokulfirdir core, MD99-2265 gives us an example of a fjord core influenced by the drainage system of the glacier Drangajokull, NW Iceland.

In this study we use foraminiferal faunal assemblages as a proxy to reconstruct the paleoenvironment. Transfer functions on benthic foraminifera are then used to estimate the changes in bottom water temperature and salinity during the Holocene (the last 10.0 ka yr BP). Both shelf cores show similarities in the broad temperature trend, with the warmest period during the mid Holocene (7.8-5.2 ka yr BP) and with gradually greater influence of cooler waters after 5.0 ka BP. The long term temperature trend is cut by several cold and warm events of short duration, in particular one that coincides most probably with the 8.2 ka BP cold event. Other colder intervals found in all three cores are at 4.5-3.8 ka BP, 3.2-2.6 ka BP and 0.7-0.5 ka BP. Warm intervals found in all three cores are at 9.8-9.5, 7.8-7.5, 3.8-3.3 and 1.5 ka BP. Core MD99-2264 shows more variability, though lower amplitude and longer lasting cold spells. This is explained by the close proximity to the cold polar current. These three study sites indicate that the influence of the IC has varied considerably over the Holocene.