Diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) from the Valley of the Great Lakes in Western Mongolia

Abstract

The Valley of the Great Lakes (VOGL) in western Mongolia is dominated by two main (Uvs, Khyargas) and many minor closed basin lake systems. In 2004 and 2005, we sampled diatom communities from the surfi cial sediment of 64 lakes in the western Mongolian provinces of Uvs, Khovd, Zavkhan, and Bayan-Ulgii. Lakes ranged in water chemistry from fresh to hypersaline, oligotrophic to hypertrophic, and from low elevation VOGL lakes to high elevation lakes in the Altai Mountains. Over 300 diatom species were identifi ed in the sediment samples including a diverse fl ora limited to saline lakes, many widespread taxa, many new reports for the Mongolian diatom fl ora, and several new and possibly endemic species. We also review recent diatom literature from Mongolia including fl oristic surveys, paleo-ecology, and water quality studies.