We thank Ms.Daramragchaa Tuya from the Tarvagatai Nuruu National Park(Tosontsengel Sum,Zavkhan Aimag,Mongolia)for her invaluable support of our research.We wish to express our gratitude to our Mongolian colleagues Mr.Amarbayasgalan,Mr.Enkhjargal,Mr.Enkh-Agar,Ms.Munkhtuya.We greatly appreciated their hospitality and help with the fieldwork.Our thanks also go to the German students Martine Koob,Tino Peplau,Janin Klaassen and Tim Rollwage for their great support with the biomass measurements during the fieldwork in Mongolia.The German Aerospace Centre(DLR)liberally provided the TanDEM-X data for the study area(DEM_FOREST 1106).The fieldwork in 2014 was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in the frame of the project 87175"Forest regen-eration and biodiversity at the forest-steppe border of the Altay and Khangay Mountains under contrasting development of livestock numbers in Kazakhstan and Mongolia"granted to M.Hauck,Ch.Dulamsuren and C.Leuschner.The subsequent work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft(DFG),project number 385460422 approved to M.Klinge,D.Sauer and M.Frechen.This study was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation(project-no.871759)and by the German Research Council(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,DFG),(project no.385460422). （Tosontsengel Sum,Zavkhan Aimag,Mongolia）