Vegetation changes and associated climate variations during the past ∼38,000 years reconstructed from the Shaamar eolian-paleosol section, northern Mongolia

This study presents a pollen-based reconstruction of the vegetation changes and associated climate variations at the Shaamar eolian-paleosol section in the northern Mongolian Plateau. The semi-quantitative reconstructions of paleovegetation types and temperature and moisture indices show that the vegetation in the Shaamar area was a taiga forest dominated by Picea, Abies, and Pinus sibirica-type between ∼38,000 and ∼30,000 cal. BP when the reconstructed moisture level was the highest of the past ∼38,000 years. The vegetation during the ensuing period from ∼30,000 to ∼23,000 cal. BP was mainly a steppe dominated by Artemisia and Poaceae under low temperature and relatively low moisture conditions. The vegetation during the period from ∼23,000 to ∼10,000 cal. BP varied from a taiga forest, through steppe (dominated by Poaceae), taiga forest and forest steppe, to a taiga forest. The climate was cold and relatively dry in the early phase (∼23,000 to ∼20,000 cal. BP) and warmer and somewhat drier in the later phase (∼19,000 to ∼11,000 cal. BP). The pollen assemblages and the vegetation zonal indices suggest that the vegetation was a forest-steppe during the period from ∼10,000 to ∼3000 cal. BP under rising temperature and low moisture conditions. A taiga forest has dominated the landscape during the past ∼3000 years under cooling and wetting conditions. Comparison of our pollen record with other paleoclimatic records suggests that the climate changes in the northern Mongolian Plateau have been controlled or modulated by ocean-atmospheric coupling dynamics in the North Atlantic region.