“…There are two categories of reconstructions of past North Atlantic Ocean circulation: surface and deep ocean reconstructions. This paper focuses on deep ocean circulation reconstructions, based on a number of proxies: ratios of carbon and oxygen isotopes (δ 13 C and δ 18 O) measured in shells of benthic foraminifera [ Oppo et al , ; Kleiven et al , ; Hoogakker et al , ], deep ocean sediment characteristics, such as the sortable silt (SS) mean grain size [ Bianchi and McCave , ; Hoogakker et al , ; Thornalley et al , ; Kissel et al , ], magnetic properties of grains (abbreviated as “ κ ”) [ Kleiven et al , ; Kissel et al , , ], geochemical data such as the Pa/Th ratio [ McManus et al , ; Gherardi et al , ] and bulk mineralogy and isotopic composition of sediments (such as Nd, Sm, and Pb) [ Fagel and Mattielli , ]. In our present study, we focus on SS, κ , and δ 13 C, because the first two proxies focus on the speed of bottom water masses, which are thought to relate to flow speed in our model, whereas the third one focuses on the activity of ventilation and therefore supply of deep water, which is thought to relate to convective activity and the meridional overturning strength in our model.…”