Over the past decades, many proxy materials (for example, lacustrine sediments, marine sediments, ice cores, loess, and tree rings) have been used to reconstruct palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes. A new proxy material, palaeo-notch sediment, was reported in 2006, and since then many studies have been published for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction using palaeo-notch sediments. In this paper, we introduced the palaeo-notch sediments in detail, and reviewed the state of knowledge on the Holocene climate changes, ecological responses to climate change and environmental impacts of anthropogenic activities based on the published research using palaeo-notch sediments. We also summarised five advantages of using palaeo-notch sediments for palaeoenvironmental studies. The palaeo-notch sediments may be available in the coastal regions from the Arctic, Antarctic and many other parts of the world. Therefore, sediments in palaeo-notches could provide valuable information for the study of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment in coastal regions.

在过去的几十年中，许多替代材料（例如，湖泊沉积物、海洋沉积物、冰芯、黄土和树木年轮）已被用于重建古气候和古环境变化。2006 年报道了一种新的替代材料，古缺口沉积物，此后发表了许多利用古缺口沉积物重建古气候和古环境的研究。在本文中，我们详细介绍了古缺口沉积物，并基于已发表的古缺口沉积物研究，回顾了全新世气候变化、气候变化的生态响应和人类活动对环境影响的知识现状。我们还总结了使用古缺口沉积物进行古环境研究的五个优势。北极、南极和世界许多其他地区的沿海地区可能有古缺口沉积物。因此，古缺口沉积物可为沿海地区的古气候和古环境研究提供有价值的信息。