Intensive grazing and gold mining threaten biological diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates in the Altai and Hangai mountains, and the Uvs Nuur Basin UNESCO World Heritage Site of western Mongolia, a unique region characterized by both pristine and impacted aquatic habitat. This project will document that biodiversity and combine diversity data with ecological data to identify aquatic habitat in need of conservation or monitoring. Research will be conducted as a collaborative effort between researchers at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution (PUI) who will focus on biodiversity and ecology of non-biting midges and the Mongolian Aquatic Insect Survey (MAIS) which will cover most other major groups of aquatic macroinvertebrates. The PUI research will focus on non-biting midges because they often account for over 50% of aquatic insect diversity in freshwater habitats and established methods exist for sampling which allow researchers to combine surveys with ecological research.
The results of this project will be submitted to the Mongolian government and MAIS for use in conservation and biological monitoring planning. The project will provide extensive research opportunities for the participants from the PUI and will be used to increase biodiversity and ecological research activities at the PUI. Field experiences will foster collaborations between U.S. undergraduate students and their Mongolian counterparts.
