West Mongolia Research Articles

THE CRUSTAL THICKNESS AND Vp/Vs RATIO IN MONGOLIA

Crustal thickness beneath Mongolia was determined using the teleseismic receiver function H-k stacking method, which employed waveform data from broadband seismic stations in Mongolia. The findings reveal that the crust of Mongolia thickens from east to west, with the thickness reaching 63 km in west Mongolia and 35.9 km in east Mongolia. In the central part of Mongolia, the average thickness of the crust is approximately 45 km. The characteristics of P-to-S converted phases and negative amplitudes in stacked receiver functions, may be attributed to regional tectonostratigraphic terranes in Mongolia. Subsequently, a general map of the crustal thickness of Mongolia was generated by combining the results of this study with those of other seismological studies and the CRUST1.0 model of the Earth’s crust.

New data on the distribution of three species of the genus Catocala Schrank in East Kazakhstan and West Mongolia (Lepidoptera: Erebidae)

Three Central Asian species of the genus Catocala Schrank, 1802, Catocala neglecta Staudinger, 1888, Catocala repudiata Staudinger, 1888, and Catocala desiderata Staudinger, 1888 are found in the valley of the upper Irtysh River in the east of the Zaisan Depression, East Kazakhstan. Catocala neglecta is also found in the northern spurs of the Saur Mountains. Catocala repudiata Staudinger, 1888 is reported from Mongolia (Khovd Aimak) for the first time. The new distribution data represent the northernmost known localities of all three species. Adults and habitats are illustrated, and distribution maps are provided.

Two Millennia of Climate History for the Russian Altai: Integrated Reconstruction from Lake Sediment Data

Abstract—A continuous history of annual air temperatures in the Russian Altai for the past 2000 years has been reconstructed for the first time by integrating climate archives stored in the bottom sediments of four lakes in Gorny Altai (Teletskoye, Kucherla, Lower Multa, and Middle Multa). The integrated chronology comprises all known climate events of the two millennia time span: Roman warm epoch (~200 to 500 AD), Dark Age cold epoch (~500 to 750 AD), medieval warming (~750 to 1300 AD), and Little Ice Age (~1300 to 1850 AD). The events distinguished in the integrated climate reconstruction agree perfectly in number and time with the events reconstructed from other climate proxies for the Altai and adjacent areas of West Siberia, Tyva, and West Mongolia. Therefore, the temperature patterns represent a common course of the 2000-year climate evolution over a large part of Central Asia. Similar synchronicity is observed with the available quantitative climate reconstructions for the Northern Hemisphere and its different regions. It means that the climate change in Central Asia over the past two millennia has followed the general global scenario.

Genetic Analysis of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) from the Mongol-Altai: A Hotspot of Diversity and Implications for Global Phylogeography

ABSTRACT The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is widely distributed in the northern Hemisphere and is thus an ideal candidate to explore large-scale biogeographic patterns. In recent years, Golden Eagle population genetics has gained considerable attention. However, the Eastern Palearctic region, a numerical stronghold for the species, is one of the least genetically studied regions within its geographic range. In West Mongolia, the Altai (Altay) Kazakhs collect wild Golden Eagle nestlings from eyries or trap juveniles and subadults on passage during seasonal movement and migration for traditional hunting, providing easy access for researchers to sample falconry eagles for population genetic analyses. We analyzed a 402-bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region and 14 nuclear microsatellite loci in combination with previously published genetic data to assess phylogeographic patterns, levels of genetic diversity, and fine-scale structuring of the Golden Eagle population within the Mongol-Altai Mountains. Golden Eagles in the Mongol-Altai Mountains exhibited overall high levels of genetic diversity. Mitochondrial DNA data across the species' geographic range reveal various stages of differentiation within the Holarctic clade: whereas divergence between the Western and Eastern Palearctic is relatively shallow, the Eastern Palearctic and Nearctic show a deeper divergence, although these geographic regions have not yet reached reciprocal monophyly. These patterns might reflect past climatic oscillations: Northern Europe may have been recolonized by Golden Eagles from the Eastern Palearctic region, and continental populations might still be connected by long-distance dispersers, but the Eastern Palearctic and Nearctic were likely connected via Beringia during the Quaternary and are today largely isolated from each other.

Mineral composition of terrigenous components in loess and clay deposits of Western Mongolia

Introduction. The paper considers the results of a study associated with the mineral composition of terrigenous components in loess and clay deposits of Western Mongolia. The study was performed by the method of quantitative immersion analysis using samples obtained in the framework of geological studies during the seismic microzoning of certain cities.Aim. Determination and analysis of variations in the mineral composition of terrigenous components of loess quaternary alluvial, eolian, diluvial-eolian and diluvial-proluvial complexes, as well as Neogene-lower Quaternary lake-alluvial and Cretaceous-Paleogene lake “brick” clays.Materials and methods. The database is represented by quantitative data on the content of light and heavy minerals (0.01—0.25 mm fraction) in various geological and genetic deposit complexes, sampled from outcrops with the thickness of 6–8 m and test wells with the depth of 20–30 m (72 samples in total). During the compositional characterisation of light and heavy fractions, mineral associations were established, as well as maturity (Кz) and stability coefficients (KU) were calculated. Four territorial zones, including northern (territory of Sükhbaatar and Mörön), central (Zuunmod), western (Uliastai) and southern (Dalanzadgad), were isolated. A Q-type cluster analysis program was applied to process mineralogical data.Results. Variations in mineral associations of the studied objects were established related both to their belonging to the selected geological and genetic complexes and the possibility of eolian process effects. The factors of influence include climatic conditions during the formation of complexes, the composition of rocks in geological formations abundant in these territories and contemporary climatic zoning.Conclusion. Representative data were obtained for the central and southern zones, where the mineral composition of terrigenous components was determined using samples from test wells having clearly observed variations in the mineral composition of deposits during the change of a geological and genetic complex. Since the immersion method is still essential for studies of sedimentary rocks, the information on a new object, represented by the territory of West Mongolia, obtained for the first time, appears to be of a particular interest both from scientific and practical points of view.

Comparative Assessment of Grassland Dynamic and Its Response to Drought Based on Multi-Index in the Mongolian Plateau.

This study applied grassland related multi-index and assessed the effects of climate change by investigating grassland responses to drought. This process was performed to study grassland vegetation dynamic accurately and evaluate the effect of drought in the Mongolian Plateau (MP). The spatial–temporal characteristics of grassland dynamic in terms of coverage (Fv), surface bareness (Fb), and net primary production (NPP) from 2000 to 2013 were explored. We implemented the maximum Pearson correlation to analyze the grassland vegetation in response to drought by using self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI). Results show that Fv and NPP present an increasing trend (0.18 vs. 0.43). Fb showed a decreasing trend with a value of −0.16. The grassland Fv and NPP positively correlated with scPDSI, with a value of 0.12 and 0.85, respectively, and Fb was −0.08. The positive correlation between Fv and NPP accounted for 84.08%, and the positive correlation between Fv and scPDSI accounted for 93.88%. On the contrary, the area with a negative correlation between Fb and scPDSI was 57.43%. The grassland in the MP showed a recovery tendency. The increase in grassland caused by positive reaction was mainly distributed in the middle of Mongolia (MG), whereas that caused by counter response was mainly distributed in the east and west MG and northeast Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China (IM). The relevant results may provide useful information for policymakers about mitigation strategies against the inverse effects of drought on grassland and help to ease the losses caused by drought.

The Evolution Characteristics of Daily-Scale Silk Road Pattern and Its Relationship with Summer Temperature in the Yangtze River Valley

By employing multi-reanalysis daily datasets and station data, this study focuses on the evolution characteristics of the daily-scale Silk Road pattern (SRP) and its effect on summer temperatures in the Yangtze River Valley (YRV). The results manifest that the evolution characteristics of positive- and negative-phase SRP (referred to SRP+ and SRP−) exhibit marked distinctions. The anomaly centers of SRP+ over West Central Asia (WCA) and Mongolia emerge firstly, vanishing simultaneously one week after peak date; however, the Far East (FE) anomaly centers can persist for a longer period. The SRP− starts with the WCA and FE centers, with a rapid decline in the strength of the WCA center and preservation of other anomaly centers after its peak. In the vertical direction, daily-scale SRP mainly concentrates in the mid-to-upper troposphere. Baroclinicity accounts for its early development and barotropic instability process favors the maintenance. Moreover, the SRP+ (SRP−) is inextricably linked to heat wave (cool summer) processes in the YRV. Concretely, before the onset of SRP+ events, an anomalous anticyclone and significant negative vorticities over East Asia related to SRP+ favor the zonal advance between the South Asia high (SAH) and western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), inducing local descents over YRV area. The sinking adiabatic warming and clear-sky radiation warming can be considered as the possible causes for the YRV heat waves. The adiabatic cooling with the local ascents leads to more total cloud cover (positive precipitation anomalies) and less solar radiation incident to surface of the YRV, inducing the cool summer process during SRP−.

Investigation of Commensal Escherichia coli Populations of Cormorant Hatchlings in the Absence of Anthropogenic Impacts in Remote Areas of West Mongolia.

To increase our understanding of bacterial intestinal colonization in animal populations lacking substantial anthropogenic influence we studied the diversity of E. coli in cormorants from the pristine West-Mongolian steppe. E. coli were isolated from individual birds of two cormorant colonies located on small islands in lakes at least 100 km away from human settlements. Diversity of the isolates was studied using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). 137 isolates of cormorant colony-1 and 75 isolates of cormorant colony-2 resulted in 60 and 33 PFGE types, respectively. Representative strains of each PFGE type were analyzed via PCR in terms of phylogroups and extraintestinal virulence-associated genes (exVAGs). Bacterial adhesion to the chicken intestinal cell line CHIC-8E11 and antimicrobial resistance was also determined. Most isolates belonged to phylogroup B1 (68.3%) followed by B2 and E with B2 harboring the highest total number of exVAGs per isolate. Unexpectedly, a PFGE type with relatively few exVAGs displayed the highest isolation frequency, also showing a high adhesion rate. Comparative analysis of exVAGs to other E. coli populations of wildlife origin revealed that the secreted autotransporter toxin encoding sat gene was only present in cormorants. Overall, E. coli in cormorants maintained a high diversity under minimal anthropogenic influences, which likely enables intestinal colonization.

Late Ordovician Mafic Magmatic Event, Southeast Siberia: Tectonic Implications, LIP Interpretation, and Potential Link with a Mass Extinction

A geochronological, isotopic, and geochemical study of the Suordakh event of mafic magmatic intrusions on the southeast Siberian margin was undertaken. U-Pb baddeleyite dating of a mafic sill intruding lower Cambrian rocks, yielded a 458 ± 13 Ma emplacement age. The chemical composition and stratigraphic setting of this dated sill differed from that previously attributed to the Suordakh event, implying that additional intrusions, previously mapped as Devonian, potentially belonged to the Suordakh event. No correlation between L.O.I. and concentration of highly mobile major and trace elements was documented, showing small or no influence of hydrothermal alteration on the chemical composition of the intrusions. A new tectonic reconstruction located an island arc and active margin relatively close to the study area. However, all samples had chemical compositions close to that of OIB and did not display Ta-Nb and Ti-negative anomalies, nor other features typical for subduction-related magmatism. The major and trace element distribution was most characteristic of within-plate basalts with the mantle source composition being transitional from spinel to garnet lherzolite. Combining four U-Pb baddeleyite dates of mafic sills and dykes from southeast Siberia, the age of the Suordakh event was estimated at 454 ± 10 Ma. The area of the Suordakh event was at least 35,000–40,000 km2 (an estimate including sills previously interpreted as Devonian), and could be increased with additional dating in Southeastern Siberia. Similar ages for within-plate intrusions were reported from South Korea, West Mongolia, South Argentina, North Iran and Northwest Canada, and these ca. 450 Ma ages were collectively close in timing with the latest Ordovician (Hirnantian) mass extinction. More high-precision dating is necessary to fully test a link between the Suordakh event (and the other age-correlative events) and the end-Ordovician mass extinction.

PHONETIC FEATURES OF THE KALMYK AND OIRAT LANGUAGES OF WEST MONGOLIA

The purpose of the article. By comparing the elements of phonetic systems of the modern Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia, the authors aim to identify in these languages the pan-Oirat areal features, the specific phonetic characteristics that were formed during the hundreds of years of independent development in the Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia and preserved through the historical development. The solution to this task may provide the research basis for the future development of issues of historical grammar. Scientific novelty. The comparison of language contacts of Oirats in West Mongolia and Kalmyks living in Russia. The expansion of Oirats over large areas and continuous language contacts must have led to the development of differences in the languages of Oirats in West Mongolia and Kalmyks in Kalmykia. There are new opportunities to compare the identical variants in different contact situations, which allows one to assess the importance of such factors as the structural similarity on the phonetic level of the contacting languages. As a result, the prerequisites will be formed for the creation of historical grammar of the Mongolian protolanguage. This research topic is unique in global Mongolian studies. Results. The study of the Kalmyk language and the Oirat language of West Mongolia has indicated that during the four centuries of independent development, the Kalmyk language has remained practically unchanged within one of its main levels – phonetic and is almost similar to the Oirat language area formed in the ancient times. Conclusions. The phonetic structure of the modern Kalmyk language has remained practically unchanged and retains the features of the Oirat language area.

Zooplankton of Pulsating Lakes Orog and Tatsyn-Tsagaan (West Mongolia) in the Period of the Beginning of the Stabilization of Water-Level Regime

The interannual changes in the zooplankton of periodically drying (pulsating) lakes at the beginning of the stabilization period of their level regime under conditions of significant fluctuations in the amount of precipitation, air temperature, and water mineralization are analyzed. It has been shown that the amount of precipitation, the increase of which may indirectly enrich the food supply for invertebrates, plays the leading role in changing the structure of zooplankton. Under these conditions, the number of structural characteristics of zooplankton indicate the eutrophication of lakes, the intensity of which depends on the area of ​​the waterbody and the connection with the feeding river. Similar changes in zooplankton have been noted in years with elevated air temperatures. With a sharp increase in water mineralization, an increase in the quantitative indicators of zooplankton determined by Copepoda has been revealed.

Interannual Fluctuations of Zooplankton in the Tayshir Reservoir (West Mongolia)

An increase in electroconductivity in the reservoir created in the upper part of alpine Dzabkhan River leads to the elevation of the zooplankton abundance and biomass determined by crustaceans. The lowest values of quantitative indicators are characteristic of the zooplankton in the littoral zone of the reservoir. This relates to the flooding of land areas characterized by poor soils and terrestrial vegetation, as well as by wave mixing. It is revealed that, with an increase in water level and reservoir volume, the quantitative characteristics of coastal zooplankton in all parts of the reservoir increase; in the channel zone, this happens only in the upstream and midstream parts. On the contrary, in the near-dam area, these indices decrease.

Дополнения к флоре Русского Алтая и Западной Монголии

Дополнения к флоре Русского Алтая и Западной Монголии

Shallow Seismicity Forecast for the India‐Eurasia Collision Zone Based on Geodetic Strain Rates

AbstractGeodetic strain rates from increasing Global Positioning System data provide a promising approach for seismicity forecast. With the strain rate field presented in Zheng et al. (2017, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014465) derived from the most complete and up‐to‐date Global Positioning System data set in the India‐Eurasia collision zone, we forecast the shallow seismicity of this region, and infer that about 11 Mw ≥ 7.5, 36 Mw ≥ 7.0, 109 Mw ≥ 6.5, and 326 Mw ≥ 6.0 earthquakes may occur here every 100 years. We indicate that shallow seismicity forecast may be able to help us distinguish between block and continuum models, and block model cannot well describe the kinematics of the Tibetan Plateau, Tien Shan, West Mongolia, North China, and Myanmar. We suggest that the regions with high forecasted earthquake rates but lack of historical earthquakes are undergoing high seismic risk, such as the west‐central Himalaya (overdue for Mw ≥ 7.5 earthquakes, possibly Mw ≥ 8.0) and the central Altyn Tagh fault (overdue for Mw ≥ 7.0 and Mw ≥ 7.5 earthquakes).

Herders and hazards: covariate dzud risk and the cost of risk management strategies in a Mongolian subdistrict

Studies of mobile pastoralist livelihoods have shown that a variety of socio-technical practices have been developed to achieve reliable outputs from livestock in variable arid and semi-arid environments. This paper builds upon the concept of pastoralists as high-reliability seekers rather than risk-averse and makes a case for understanding Mongolian herders as well adapted to livestock production in highly variable climatic conditions within a certain threshold of risk and uncertainty. This system fails, however, during instances of high uncertainty and covariate risk such as in cases of the natural hazard dzud, which requires individual households to make significant cash investments in risk management. It forwards the idea that investing in local government—soum and bag level—administrative capacity and infrastructure is needed to build system resilience to covariate risk. Based on ethnographic research in rural Bayankhongor, this paper interrogates how dzud interfaces with socio-economic factors amongst pastoralists in central west Mongolia.

Livestock productivity as indicator of vulnerability to climate hazards: a Mongolian case study

Mongolia is subject to regular peaks of livestock winter mortality called dzuds. Several kinds of dzud exist and the ‘white dzud’, characterized by heavy stochastic snowfalls preventing livestock to access forage, is considered the most common. Droughts and high livestock densities are thought to be part of the dzud process by affecting body condition, which increases vulnerability to snowfalls. Guided by the equilibrium/nonequilibrium framework, we studied how rainfall, animal numbers and pasture health (defined as the integrity of ecological processes sustaining grass growth) impact livestock body condition in a case study of West Mongolia. We studied this parameter through livestock productivity (LP) as a proxy, defined as the annual number of newborns per breeding-age female. We found no significant impact of rainfall or livestock numbers, alone or combined. We found through the study of pasture use, defined as the ratio forage consumed/forage available, an impact of the combined effect of rainfall, animal numbers and pasture health. We observed in addition sharp LP decreases prior to dzuds, which suggests that the above-mentioned drivers interact to weaken livestock which increases its vulnerability to winter hazards. This tends to show that in our case study, dzuds are not the simple consequence of stochastic hazards striking randomly, but instead, the final stage of a chain of events that involves dry years, high livestock densities and pasture degradation. This also indicates that dzud early warning indicators could be designed based on LP monitoring.

Paleomagnetism of early paleozoic geological complexes of Mongolia

Most of the studied Early Phanerozoic rocks of West Mongolia have undergone repeated remagnetization. Secondary magnetization components with normal and reversed polarity are isolated. The magnetization components with normal polarity are associated with the Mesozoic remagnetization of the rocks. The components with reversed polarity were probably formed during the Carboniferous–Permian superchron of reversed polarity. The analysis of the distribution of the reversed-polarity magnetization component in the structure of Mongolia permits some zonation. Within Mongolia, the regions with insignificant post- Permian deformations and complicated post-Permian deformations are identified; also the area of rotations of large geological blocks about the horizontal axis (Khan-Khukhei Ridge) is distinguished. It is hypothesized that in the Ordovician rocks of West Mongolia, the magnetization component that is close to primary was identified. If this is the case, the paleolatitude calculated from this magnetization direction corresponds to the interval 14°–17°–20° (minimal–mean–maximal) of probably northern latitude

Alucitidae (Lepidoptera), a new family for the Mongolian fauna

Lepidoptera family Alucitidae is reported for the first time for the fauna of Mongolia. Alucita helena Ustjuzhanin, 1993 was discovered in West Mongolia in the ranges of the Dzun-Dzhargalant-Khairkhan.

Bacterial Communities of Three Saline Meromictic Lakes in Central Asia.

Meromictic lakes located in landlocked steppes of central Asia (~2500 km inland) have unique geophysiochemical characteristics compared to other meromictic lakes. To characterize their bacteria and elucidate relationships between those bacteria and surrounding environments, water samples were collected from three saline meromictic lakes (Lakes Shira, Shunet and Oigon) in the border between Siberia and the West Mongolia, near the center of Asia. Based on in-depth tag pyrosequencing, bacterial communities were highly variable and dissimilar among lakes and between oxic and anoxic layers within individual lakes. Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria and Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla, whereas three genera of purple sulfur bacteria (a novel genus, Thiocapsa and Halochromatium) were predominant bacterial components in the anoxic layer of Lake Shira (~20.6% of relative abundance), Lake Shunet (~27.1%) and Lake Oigon (~9.25%), respectively. However, few known green sulfur bacteria were detected. Notably, 3.94% of all sequencing reads were classified into 19 candidate divisions, which was especially high (23.12%) in the anoxic layer of Lake Shunet. Furthermore, several hydro-parameters (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, H2S and salinity) were associated (P< 0.05) with variations in dominant bacterial groups. In conclusion, based on highly variable bacterial composition in water layers or lakes, we inferred that the meromictic ecosystem was characterized by high diversity and heterogenous niches.

Study on the Steady-State Stability Margin of a Weak Section by Using the Online Data of WAMS

To realize the on-line quick analysis of the steady-state stability margin for the weak section of a power grid, a method of dividing the important generator groups according to the impact of the system equivalent impedance on the static stability limits of the section is presented. By using the dynamic information provided by the Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS), the center of inertia (COI) of the section of the two sides system is determined. Then the steady-state stability limits of the transmission section and the static stability margin can be calculated. The algorithm is verified by taking the out-play cross-section of West Inner Mongolia as an example, the results show that the static stability power limit and the steady-state stability margin of the section can be obtained accurately according to the presented algorithm. This algorithm can provide an effective analytical method for the online static stability security analysis of a power system.