ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a recurrent theme that has been the fundamental imprint on the Quaternary environmental record of climate change, operating at Milankovitch, sub-Milankovitch and much shorter timescales. The simplest environmental simulation models (ESMs) are box models that reduce complex components of the global environmental system to artificial 'reservoirs', within which conditions are homogenized. The reservoirs are connected by 'pipes' that control mass transfer between the reservoirs. The chapter describes general circulation models (GCM) are designed to simulate the complex three-dimensional structure and dynamic flows of the earth's atmosphere and oceans. It explains that linkage of climatic anomalies over great distances is referred to as teleconnection. The chapter also explains prior to the publication of the Greenland ice-core records, interpretations of the climatic history of the last cold stage were based largely on marine oxygen isotope records.
