Fossil diatom assemblages preserved in marine sediments from the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) provide information with which to determine palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic variability for the Holocene. The use of diatoms as a proxy is based on the response of species to limiting factors, tracking changes in surface water mass characteristics and sea-ice extent. Through detailed comparison of AP sediment cores spatially and temporally, the project aims to reconstruct changes in water mass circulation on the continental shelf, fluctuations in sea-ice extent and ice shelf collapse events. A key question is: were such events peninsula-wide and synchronous during the Holocene?