Reconstruction of grassland ecosystems and their vegetation succession is an important issue in palaeoenvironmental research. Phytoliths and pollen are two common proxies for palaeovegetation reconstruction, and their importance can be evaluated based on investigations of the relationships between modern vegetation and phytolith/pollen assemblages in surface-soil samples. The correlations between phytolith assemblages and environmental variables were analysed based on 34 surface-soil samples from the Xilingol Grassland, Inner Mongolia, North China, and a palynological analysis was carried out on the same samples, enabling a comparison between their sensitivity to vegetation and climate change. The results show that the phytolith assemblages mainly consist of blocky and rondel phytoliths, while other short-cell phytolith types, such as saddle and bilobate types, are scarce. The pollen assemblages were characterised by a high abundance of Artemisia and Amaranthaceae. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated that the most important environmental factors affecting the distribution of phytoliths are altitude and latitude, while the mean warmest monthly temperature (MWMT) and altitude were the most significant environmental factors affecting the distribution of the pollen assemblages. CCA of the phytoliths and pollen assemblages separated both samples into two groups: broadleaf forest/scrub and steppe/meadow groups, but it appeared that phytoliths were more sensitive in arid grasslands. This case study could be used as a baseline for interpreting fossil phytolith/pollen assemblages from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and indicates that multiproxy analysis of the same samples can provide reliable information on palaeovegetation and palaeoclimate reconstruction.

草地生态系统及其植被演替的重建是古环境研究的重要课题。植石和花粉是古植被重建的两个常见代理，可以通过调查现代植被与表层土壤样品中的植石/花粉组合之间的关系来评估其重要性。基于34个来自内蒙古锡林郭尔草原的表层土壤样品，分析了植物石器组合与环境变量之间的相关性，并对这些样品进行了孢粉学分析，从而比较了它们对植被和气候的敏感性。改变。结果表明，植物硅藻体组合主要由块状和隆德植物硅藻体组成，而其他短细胞植物硅藻体类型，例如鞍形和双叶形的稀缺。花粉组合的特征是高度丰富蒿和A菜科。典范对应分析（CCA）表明，影响植石体分布的最重要环境​​因素是海拔和纬度，而平均最暖月温度（MWMT）和海拔是影响花粉组合分布的最重要环境​​因素。硅藻土和花粉组合的CCA将两个样品分为两组：阔叶林/灌丛和草原/草甸组，但似乎在干旱草原中硅藻土更敏感。该案例研究可作为解释内蒙古草原植物化石/花粉组合的基线，并表明对同一样品进行多代理分析可提供有关古植被和古气候重建的可靠信息。