THE STUDIES OF HOLOCENE CLIMATE CHANGES IN MONGOLIA: A REVIEW

Abstract

This article has a brief review on Holocene climate changes in Mongolia. The studies of Mongolian Holocene climate changes mainly focused on the records of tree-rings, eolian sediments and lacustrine sediments. (1 783) years of temperature variability were inferred from tree-ring widths of Siberian pine at Hangai Mountain and about 340 years of precipitation and stream flow variability were reconstructed according to the data of tree-rings in east-central Mongolia. Eolian strata are distributed in the corridor running from Ulaanbaatar to Lake Baikal. The Holocene paleosols there can be correlated with that in Northern China. According to the studies of lacustrine sediments, there occur two Holocene climatic models, cool-dry/ warm-wetter model and cool-wetter/ warm-dry modelin Mongolia, bordered by Hangai Mountain, suggesting the complex of Mongolian Holocene climate changes. The water resource, combination of water and heat, atmospheric circulation may be different between the north and south of Mongolia. In a word, the studies of Mongolian Holocene climate changes are relatively poor and should be enhanced.