The climate history since the Last Interglacial (~ 130 000 years ago) is marked by profound transitions, ranging from abrupt events to gradual reorganizations of the Earth system. This period offers a unique testing ground for evaluating and refining Earth system models across a wide spectrum of boundary conditions, from glacial extremes to interglacial warmth.

Simulating the climate dynamics of the last glacial cycle – including transitions, feedbacks, and tipping elements – enables us to assess the structural robustness of Earth system models used for future projections. Such model–data comparisons are critical not only to constrain uncertainties, but also to understand possible regime shifts in climate variability, the emergence of nonlinear behaviour, and the relevance of long-term feedbacks under anthropogenic forcing.

Review process: This inter-journal special issue co-lists papers of different journals. Thereby, each paper was submitted to 1 particular journal and underwent the regular interactive peer-review process of that journal. Depending on the journal, the peer review was handled by regular members of the editorial board and/or by guest editors designated by the journal's chief/executive editors.