The Changbai Mountains,located in the temperate monsoon climate zone of East Asia,is an ideal loca-tion for the research on timberline response to global changes.In this study,the topsoils were collected from different vertical vegetation zones on the northern slope of the Changbai Mountains,Northeast China in August 2009,and phytoliths in the soil samples were extracted by using wet oxidation method and identified with Motic 2.0 microscope in laboratory.The results show that phytoliths are abundant in the topsoils of the study area.The herbal phytoliths are primarily composed of elongated,tooth-shaped,point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths,as well as a small amount of fan-shaped and square-shaped ones.The elongated,tooth-shaped,point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths are representative of cold climate,while fan-shaped and square-shaped ones are representative of warm and humid climate.In the conifer broadleaved mixed forest zone,coniferous forest zone and broadleaf forest zone,there are close correlations between vegetation and woody phytoliths in the topsoils,indicating that the woody plants of a region can be reconstructed from the woody phytolith assemblages in the topsoils.Meanwhile,the topsoil phytolith assemblages can also be used to reconstruct the understory herbs effectively.The phytolith assemblages in the topsoils of the forest community and herbal community differ significantly,which can help indicate the historical location of the timberline. The Changbai Mountains, located in the temperate monsoon climate zone of East Asia, is an ideal loca-tion for the research on timberline response to global changes. In this study, the topsoils were collected from different vertical vegetation zones on the northern slope of the Changbai Mountains, Northeast China in August 2009, and phytoliths in the soil samples were extracted by using wet oxidation method and identified with Motic 2.0 microscope in laboratory. The results show that phytoliths are abundant in the topsoils of the study area. The herbal phytoliths are to composed of elongated, tooth-shaped, point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths, as well as small amount of fan-shaped and square-shaped ones. The elongated, tooth-shaped, point-shaped and hat-shaped phytoliths are representative of cold climate, while fan-shaped and square-shaped ones are representative of warm and humid climate. In the conifer broadleaved mixed forest zone, coniferous forest zone and broadleaf forest zone, there ar e close correlations between vegetation and woody phytoliths in the topsoils, indicating that the woody plants of a region can be reconstructed from the woody phytolith assemblages in the topsoils. Mianwhile, the topsoil phytolith assemblages can also be used to reconstruct the understory herbs effectively. phytolith assemblages in the topsoils of the forest community and herbal community differ significantly, which can help indicate the historical location of the timberline.