This study reconstructs the Late Quaternary paleoclimatic history of Mongolia based on multi-proxy sedimentary records from lakes in Mongolia. The high-proxy data show that in the Late Pleistocene, the cold and dry and cold and wet climates dominated in western and northern Mongolia, respectively. In the Holocene, paleoclimates in Mongolia differ from region to region depending on each landscape driven by local atmospheric circulations. In the early Holocene the warm and wet climates prevailed in western, central and southern Mongolia, while the cold and wet and cold and dry climates existed in Lake Darkhad and Lake Khuvsgul basins, and the valley between Khuvsgul and Khentii Mountain Ranges in northern Mongolia, respectively. In the middle Holocene, the warm and dry climates prevailed in northern (Lake Khuvsgul basin), western (Lake Khoton, Lake Achit and Lake Uvs basins), central and southern Mongolia, whereas the warm and wet climates dominated in western (the Depression of Great Lakes) and northern (Lake Darkhad basin and the valley between Khuvsgul and Khentii Mountain Ranges) Mongolia. In the late Holocene, the warm and wet climates prevailed in western, central and southern Mongolia, whereas the cool and dry and cool and wet climates differ in the Lake Darkhad basin and the valley between Khuvsgul and Khentii Mountain Ranges, and Lake Khuvsgul basin in northern Mongolia, respectively. A few high-proxy series of acceptable quality reflecting Holocene climates review with relatively precise dates from the lake sediments. Therefore, more precise investigations with detail dates from the lakes throughout Mongolia are needed to review the Late Quaternary paleoclimatic history in Mongolia and Central Asia.
