Mongolia Vertebrate Parasite Project

这个为期三年的项目的总体目标是在蒙古南部地区被计划中的主要自然资源开采、开发和过度放牧完全破坏之前，发现、描述和记录脊椎动物（小型哺乳动物、鸟类、两栖动物、爬行动物）及其寄生虫的分布。这个项目是什么？以物种清查和伴随的脊椎动物及其寄生虫的发现为基础，将为最终假设提供大量数据。基于生物地理学的问题，寄主特异性，保护，和脊椎动物分类群及其寄生同伴的共同进化。该项目将重点关注戈壁古尔万赛汗国家公园，这是蒙古第二大也是最濒危的国家公园。蒙古是一个极度不发达和调查不足的地区，地理位置极端，道路很少；因此，该国许多地区的生物多样性仍未得到充分记录，该国境内还有许多未被发现的物种。标本的收集将有助于开展必要的研究，以了解这些物种是如何在它们现在生活的地区进化的。该项目将为蒙古的研究人员和教育工作者提供培训，并为本科生和研究生提供培训和开展寄生虫/脊椎动物生物多样性和系统学研究的机会。蒙古的脊椎动物/寄生虫生物多样性讲习班将面向广泛的学生；而社区介绍将向农村社区和国际游客传播信息。该计划的外展教育部分，将蒙古寄生虫的生物多样性和文化与内布拉斯加州进行比较，将以内布拉斯加州的小学生和他们的父母为对象。

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.