This project investigates paleoceanographic and climatic history of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas during the last 500,000 years, an interval that experienced large glacial to interglacial climate fluctuations as well as millennial-scale climate changes. Warm climatic intervals such as the early Holocene (~5,000-11,500 years ago), the Last Interglacial Period (the Eemian Interglacial, ~ 125,000-130,000 years ago), and Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 11 (~400,000 to 450,000 years ago) are of particular interest due to concern about future climatic warming.

Some areas this project has investigated thus far include sea ice history, Arctic Ocean temperature and circulation, ocean temperature during the Holocene, Arctic climate during the interglacial, and ecosystems of the Bering and Chukchi Seas.