Atlantic Ocean by three inter-connected currents: the Gulf Stream which flows north-east from the North American coast at Cape Hatteras; the North Atlantic Current, a branch of the Gulf Stream which flows northward from the Grand Banks; and the Subpolar Front, an extension of the North Atlantic Current, a wide, vaguely defined region separating the subtropical gyre from the subpolar gyre. This system of currents transport warm water into the North Atlantic, without which temperatures in the North Atlantic and Europe would plunge dramatically. North of the North Atlantic Gyre, the cyclonic North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre plays a key role in climate
Atlantic Europe parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic), resulting in similar landscapes with common endemic plant and animal species. From a strictly physical point of view most of the Atlantic European shoreline can be considered a single biogeographical region. Physical geographers label this biogeographical area as the "European Atlantic Domain", part of the Euro-Siberian botanic region. The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC, that marked the economic and cultural exchange between the current territories of Portugal, Spain, France, Great Britain and Ireland. Via the Bell Beaker culture, Atlantic and Central Europe were