The North Atlantic Ocean plays a central role in Earth’s climate system by redistributing heat and driving deep-water formation within global overturning circulation. This session explores dynamic interplay between ocean gateways, characterizing the formation and evolution of source waters through their geochemical signatures, and their combined role in shaping ocean currents and global paleoclimate variability across a range of geological timescales. We invite contributions investigating the mechanisms that govern North Atlantic circulation, including the tectonic boundary conditions, gateway openings and closures, and their impacts on water mass exchange and stratification.

We welcome proxy-based reconstructions, numerical modeling studies, and data–model comparisons addressing changes in overturning strength, heat transport, carbon cycling, and cryosphere interactions. We also welcome interdisciplinary perspectives linking ocean circulation to atmospheric dynamics, biogeochemical cycles, and extreme climate events, especially from North Atlantic and gateway-focused International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions, including but not limited to 339, 397, 401, and 403.