Mongolia Vertebrate Parasite Project

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The overall goal of this three-year project is to discover, describe, and document the distribution of vertebrates (small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles) and their parasites from an area of southern Mongolia before this area is completely disrupted by planned major natural resource extraction, development, and overgrazing. This project is area?based, focusing on species inventory and concomitant discovery of vertebrates and their parasites, and will yield substantial data for ultimate hypothesis?based questions of biogeography, host specificity, conservation, and co-evolution of vertebrate taxa and their parasitic associates. The project will focus on the Gobi Gurvan Saykhan National Park, the second largest and most critically endangered Mongolian national park. Mongolia is a vastly undeveloped and under-surveyed region with geographic extremes and few roads; hence the biological diversity of many areas of the country remains poorly documented, and there are many undiscovered species within the country. Collections of specimens will enable the research necessary to understand how these species evolved in the areas where they now occur. This project will provide training for researchers and educators in Mongolia and give undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to train and conduct research in parasite/vertebrate biodiversity and systematics. Workshops in vertebrate/parasite biodiversity in Mongolia will reach a broad cross section of students; while community presentations will disseminate information to the rural community and international visitors to the park. The outreach education portion of this program, comparing Mongolian parasite biodiversity and culture with that of Nebraska, will target Nebraskan elementary school students and their parents.