Search Results (3)

Mongolia’s northernmost province, Khövsgöl Aimag, famous for its massive Lake Khövsgöl set among the mountainous steppe, taiga, and tundra forests, increasingly attracts both domestic and international tourists. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mongolia received over 500,000 tourists annually. The aimag is also home to Indigenous, nomadic Dukha reindeer herders and semi-nomadic Darkhad cattle herders. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this study uses an analytical hierarchy process to map areas in Khövsgöl Aimag, where the infrastructure, including buildings, dwellings, formal and informal roads, and pastureland, is subject to geohazards. The hazards of interest to this mapping analysis include mass wasting, flooding, and permafrost thawing, which threaten roads, pastures, houses, and other community infrastructure in Khövsgöl Aimag. Based on the integrated infrastructure risk map, an estimated 23% of the aimag is at high to very high risk for localized geohazards. After a discussion of the results informed by the interviews, mobile ethnographies, and local and national land use policies, we postulate that communities exercising more traditional nomadic lifestyles with higher mobility are more resilient to these primarily localized geohazards. Full article

A new monoraphid diatom genus, Planoplatessa gen. nov., is described on the basis of a detailed morphological investigation using light and scanning electron microscopy. We transferred Achnanthes joursacensis Héribaud, a species described from fossil deposits in France, to our new genus. We investigated material from Mongolia from Recent populations. This taxon is known from fossils to Recent across the Holarctic. Achnanthes joursacensis was previously transferred to the genera Planothidium and Platessa, but the morphology of A. joursacensis does not share all morphological features with these two genera. We discuss important morphological features for the delimitation of monoraphid genera based on careful morphological and molecular investigations we presented previously. Planoplatessa gen. nov. as a genus is characterized by having uniseriate striae on both the raphe and the rapheless valves, a cavum in rapheless valves only, and straight distal raphe ends on the valve face. Full article

As one of the most sensitive indicators of global climate change, seasonal ice-covered lakes are attracting gaining attention worldwide. As a large seasonal ice-covered lake located in Northern Mongolia, Lake Khovsgol not only provides important freshwater resources for the local population but also serves as a means of water transportation in summer and an important land-based activity for residents in winter. In this study, we used the sub-pixel offset technique with multi-temporal Sentinel-2 optical images to estimate the time-series displacement of lake ice in Lake Khovsgol from 7 December 2020 to 17 June 2021. With the processing of 112 Sentinel-2 images, we obtained 27 pairs of displacement results at intervals of 5, 10, and 15 days. These lake ice movement results covered three stages from ice-on to ice-off. The first stage was the lake ice growth period, which lasted 26 days from 7 December 2020 to 3 January 2021. Ice formation started from the south and extended northward, with a displacement of up to 10 m in 5 days. The second stage was the active phase of the ice cover, which took place from 3 January 2021 to 18 April 2021. Maximum displacement values reached 12 m in the east and 11 m in the north among all observations. The value of the lake ice movement in the north–south direction (NS) was found to be larger than in the east–west direction (EW). The third stage was the melting period, which closed on 17 June 2021. In comparison to the freezing date of November in past years, our results demonstrate the ice-on date of Lake Khovsgol has been delayed to December, suggesting a possible reason that the seasonal ice-covered lake located at the middle latitude has been affected by global warming. In addition, the lake ice movement of our results can reveal the regional climate characteristic. This study is one of the few cases to reveal the distribution characteristics and changing trends of lake ice on the Mongolia Plateau, providing a rare reference for lake ice research in this region. Full article