Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2008

Gegenstand der Dissertation sind die Ausgrabungen in der uigurischen Hauptstadt Karabalgasun/Mongolei der Jahre 2009-2011. Ein Schwerpunkt ist die Darstellung und Auswertung der Grabungsergebnisse unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der bauarchäologischen und stadtgeschichtlich relevanten Zeugnisse. Die Ausgrabungsergebnisse werden in den Kontext der frühen Siedlungs- und Stadtgeschichte Zentralasiens unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mongolei, Südsibiriens und Burjatiens eingebunden. Ein erklärtes Ziel der Dissertation ist, die besondere Bedeutung von spätnomadischen Stadtgründungen und Gründungsstädten im Zusammenhang spätnomadischer Herrschaftsbildungen zu erhellen und damit zu einem neuen Verständnis der Stadt im zentralasiatischen Nomadentum im Allgemeinen beizutragen.

Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die wissenschaftliche Sicherstellung der nachhaltigen Nutzung der Bodenschätze unter Berücksichtigung der Interessen des Umweltschutzes und der Interessen der Bevölkerung in den goldgewinnenden Regionen der Mongolei. Hierzu ist zum einen die Sensibilisierung des öffentlichen Bewusstseins für die Ökologie erforderlich als auch die Aktivierung der Marktmechanismen zur Anpassung der sozio-ökologischen Situation.

The limnological knowledge of waters in arid regions, especially Mongolia, is still insufficient. It was the goal of the Mongolian-German research project “Limnological Particularities of Characteristic Waterbodies in the Uvs Nuur Basin” to develop a systematic inventory of waters, describe their morphological, hydrophysical, chemical and biological characteristics and to generalize the framework of abiotic and biotic factors that determine their character. During the field work, carried out from 1996 to 1999, samples of water, sediments, benthic and planktonic biota were taken from 76 places at 15 stagnant water bodies, 21 streams and several groundwater bodies; morphological, hydrological, physical and hydrochemical measurements were made. Chemical and biological analyses were carried out in Germany. The most important taxonomical groups were determined by German and international specialists. The results of the work are presented and discussed separately for running waters, lakes and groundwater. Based on these findings, several general topics are dealt with: factors shaping the character of water bodies, food webs, biogeography, spatial sequence of water bodies, typology and protection issues. A checklist of 596 taxa was compiled; 109 additional taxa from the Russian and Mongolian literature were included. Two species (Cyclops glacialis Flößner 2001 and Acanthocorbis mongolica Paul 2011) were new for the science and 103 species were new reports for Mongolia. A regional stream typology with 11 different types was developed using the criteria ecoregion, altitude and catchment area. The typology developed for stagnant waters comprises 9 types based on altitude, lake area, existence of an outflow and relative depth. This dissertation comprises 139 pages and an appendix of 59 pages, 50 tables, 94 figures and a map.

Since the 1990s water quality monitoring projects using aquatic insects or macroinvertebrates as bioindication in Mongolia has mostly occurred in rivers drainage to the Arctic Ocean. They have been conducted to identify different anthropogentic stressors and impacts upon these running water ecosystems. However, there are still knowledge gaps and uncertainties concerning the research of these macroinvertebrates, in particular, a life cycle study of representative species are one such section of information missing. The specific aim for the study was to determine their life cycles and secondary production of selected species in the Kharaa River Basin, Mongolia, where these animals are exposed to harsh environment conditions. The main challenges for the research project were selecting the most suitable methods for use in the field sampling campaigns as well as establishing biomonitoring criteria for the target species under the extreme harsh climatic conditions. The research also sorts to address the pre-existing taxonomical identification problems. Consequently, a multi-habitat quantitative sampling method, and emergence traps type ‘Model week’ were selected. Five specific traits were chosen as selection criteria from the literature, where the life cycles of numerous species were investigated under comparable conditions to this study. Based on those five distinct criteria, a total of 18 species from EPT group (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera) were selected for deeper analysis. This thesis provided the first quantitative results on the life cycle, production, growth rate and emergence of aquatic insects from Mongolia, to allow comparisons with studies in other regions using the same methods. However, it still needs more quantitative research of population dynamics for a wider range of species including fecundity, accurate development rates, mortality losses (e.g., due to predation), and food availability across environmental gradients of hydraulic conditions and substrate types. In conclusion, last not least it is essential to obtain knowledge especially about life cycle strategies of macroinvertebrates to identify the indicator-properties of single species and to predict re-colonisation potential of disturbed habitats and to evaluate the efficiency of management measures.

Water resources in the semi-arid to arid areas of Central Asia are often limited by low precipitation, and hence vulnerable to impacts of global change, i.e. socio-economic development and climate change. Both, socio-economic development and climate change are very likely causing significant changes as water resources are affected by two main effects: Firstly, growing population and industrial activities in the region raise the pressure on water resources due to increasing water abstractions. Secondly, air temperature in the region has been rising in the past far above global average and it is expected to increase further, which will lead to changes in runoff generation and therefore water availability. Increasing temperature as well as increasing water abstractions will affect water quantity and consequently water quality as a result of higher pollution intake or reduction in dilution capacity. Thus, it is of crucial importance to analyse and assess the state of current and future water resources to implement sustainable water management as the above mentioned effects very likely causing significant changes of water resources. Within the last years, the number of scientific research studies using large-scale models to simulate water availability and water use has increased substantially. Several new datasets from earth observations and new or improved models have been published (Werth et al. 2009; Werth and Güntner 2010; van Beek et al. 2011). Nevertheless, those studies focussed on water quantity and did not take into account impacts on water quality induced by global change although changes in water quality affecting aquatic ecosystems and species. Furthermore, spatially explicit large-scale modelling studies have not been carried out for Mongolia and Central Asia to get a comprehensive overview and assessment. To address this research gap, the large-scale water resource modelling framework WaterGAP 3 was applied to Central Asia with a focus on Mongolia to simulate impacts on current and future water resources. WaterGAP 3 consists of hydrology, water use and water quality sub-models in order to simulate current and future water quantity and quality.

The limnological knowledge of waters in arid regions, especially Mongolia, is still insufficient. It was the goal of the Mongolian-German research project “Limnological Particularities of Characteristic Waterbodies in the Uvs Nuur Basin” to develop a systematic inventory of waters, describe their morphological, hydrophysical, chemical and biological characteristics and to generalize the framework of abiotic and biotic factors that determine their character. During the field work, carried out from 1996 to 1999, samples of water, sediments, benthic and planktonic biota were taken from 76 places at 15 stagnant water bodies, 21 streams and several groundwater bodies; morphological, hydrological, physical and hydrochemical measurements were made. Chemical and biological analyses were carried out in Germany. The most important taxonomical groups were determined by German and international specialists. The results of the work are presented and discussed separately for running waters, lakes and groundwater. Based on these findings, several general topics are dealt with: factors shaping the character of water bodies, food webs, biogeography, spatial sequence of water bodies, typology and protection issues. A checklist of 596 taxa was compiled; 109 additional taxa from the Russian and Mongolian literature were included. Two species (Cyclops glacialis Flößner 2001 and Acanthocorbis mongolica Paul 2011) were new for the science and 103 species were new reports for Mongolia. A regional stream typology with 11 different types was developed using the criteria ecoregion, altitude and catchment area. The typology developed for stagnant waters comprises 9 types based on altitude, lake area, existence of an outflow and relative depth. This dissertation comprises 139 pages and an appendix of 59 pages, 50 tables, 94 figures and a map.:Acknowledgments ii Abstract iii List of Tables iii List of Figures vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Significance of the investigations 1 1.2 Aims of the investigations 2 1.3 Sequence of field research activities 3 1.4 Area of investigation 4 1.4.1 Topographic situation and morphology .4 1.4.2 Climate 5 1.4.3 Geology and soils 9 1.4.4 Vegetation 10 1.4.5 Population and economy 10 1.4.6 Former limnological investigations in the Uvs Nuur Basin 11 1.4.7 Short description of the investigated waters 12 2 Methods 15 2.1 Sampling 15 2.2 Field measurements 16 2.3 Laboratory analyses and data evaluation 19 3 Results and discussion 26 3.1 Rivers 26 3.1.1 Morphology and hydrology 26 3.1.2 Runoff dynamics 34 3.1.3 Water temperature and freezing 38 3.1.4 Chemical properties 39 3.1.5 Aquatic biota 43 3.2 Lakes 53 3.2.1 Formation and morphometry 53 3.2.2 Water level changes and water balance 58 3.2.3 Temperature and overturn dynamics of the water body 63 3.2.4 Vertical gradients of physico-chemical parameters and chlorophyll 65 3.2.5 Horizontal gradients in Uvs Nuur: surface temperature and suspended matter 69 3.2.6 Salinity and ionic composition 71 3.2.7 Nutrients and trophic state 74 3.2.8 Sediments 79 3.2.9 Aquatic biota 83 3.3 Groundwater 95 3.3.1 Hydrology 95 3.3.2 Chemical composition 96 3.3.3 Biota 98 4 Conclusions and synthesis 99 4.1 Exogenous factors influencing the character of water bodies 99 4.1.1 Biological structure of running waters 100 4.1.2 Biological structure of lakes 104 4.2 Food webs 105 4.3 Biogeographical classification 110 4.4 Spatial sequence of water bodies and material flows 113 4.5 Transformation of the water bodies 116 4.6 Typology of water bodies 117 4.7 Protection of landscape and waters 121 5 Literature 124 6 Appendices 140 6.1 Tables 140 6.2 Cross sections and longitudinal profiles of rivers 169 6.3 Microscopical images of algal species 175 6.4 Satellite images 179 6.5 Photographs of sampled waters 182

Die vorliegende Arbeit ist bis jetzt die einzige umfangreiche, wissenschaftliche Untersuchung über alleinerziehende Mütter in der Mongolei. Obwohl das Land im Jahr 2018 ein Wirtschaftswachstum von 6,4 % erzielte, hat ein hoher Anteil der Bevölkerung noch heute große Schwierigkeiten in ihrem alltäglichen Leben. Die Hauptursachen dafür sind politische Instabilität, Korruption, Arbeitslosigkeit und Armut. Diese Faktoren erschweren das Leben vieler Mongol*innen, vor allem der verwundbareren sozialen Gruppen, wie die der älteren Leute, der Familien von alleinstehenden Müttern und ihren Kindern. Aus diesem Grund gewinnt diese ethnographische Studie über die prekären geschlechtsspezifischen Lebensgrundlagen in den Wirtschaftstransformationsprozessen weiterhin an Bedeutung. Anhand der Diskurstheorie werden zunächst herrschende Moral- und Wertevorstellungen genauer analysiert. Auf Basis dieser theoretischen Grundlage wird das historische Bild alleinstehender Mütter von Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts über die sozialistische Zeit bis zur politischen Wende von 1990 untersucht. Dazu wurden sämtliche vorhandene Archivmaterialien und die einschlägige Literatur detailliert untersucht. Die ausführliche Darstellung von Lebenssituationen interviewter alleinstehender Mütter aus den verschiedenen Wohnorten des Landes bildet den Hauptteil der Arbeit. Darauf folgt eine Analyse der geschlechtsspezifischen Rollen ihrer Kinder im familiären Umfeld. Das aktuelle Bild der Männer, das seit dem Systemwechsel von 1990 den gesellschaftlichen Diskurs prägt, ergänzt die Arbeit. / This study is the only extensive ethnographic work to focus on the living conditions and experiences of single mothers in post-socialist Mongolia. Despite reaching an economic growth rate of 6.4 percent in 2018, the majority of Mongolia's population is still exposed to extreme economic precarity caused by political instability, corruption, unemployment and poverty. These compounded factors negatively impact the quality of life for many Mongolians and, in particular, affect vulnerable populations like e.g. the elderly, single-mother households and their children, etc. Consequently, this study will continue to increase in relevance as ethnography of precarious gendered livelihoods in economic transformation. At first, the author analyzes Mongolian concepts of morality and value by drawing on discourse theory. Based on this approach, the author also looks at historical images of single-mothers from the beginning of the 20th century throughout the socialist period until the political changes in the 1990s. The author has developed her insights from studying a wide array of archival material and relevant literature. The study presents a great number of case studies of lives lead by interviewed single-mothers in different places of Mongolia. This follows their children's gender-differentiated roles in detail within their respective environments. The empirical data is based on in-depth fieldwork. The study complements the women's discourses by also addressing the current images of men, which have been characterized by the public discourse since the social change.

Mongolia is a country whose Gross Domestic Income relies heavily on raw material prices. The recent downturn in important commodity prices like copper or coal affect national income, taxes and the social welfare system. Mongolia should try to diversify its industries further to become less dependent on commodity business cycles. Mongolia should also try to lower the rate of corruption, which in many countries is highly correlated with mining businesses. Modern high tech companies and business technologies are corruption averse. Relationships based on corruption are short-lived and instable. This is what those companies do not like. A country like Mongolia that strives towards high wealth and less dependence on commodities should try to get rid of corruption.

Mongolia is a country whose Gross Domestic Income relies heavily on raw material prices. The recent downturn in important commodity prices like copper or coal affect national income, taxes and the social welfare system. Mongolia should try to diversify its industries further to become less dependent on commodity business cycles. Mongolia should also try to lower the rate of corruption, which in many countries is highly correlated with mining businesses. Modern high tech companies and business technologies are corruption averse. Relationships based on corruption are short-lived and instable. This is what those companies do not like. A country like Mongolia that strives towards high wealth and less dependence on commodities should try to get rid of corruption.