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The genus Brachymystax is represented by three putative species that disjointedly inhabit the major river basins of central and northeast Eurasia. Brachymystax lenok and B. tumensis have been regularly misidentified throughout their range, including across sympatric populations in the upper Onon River of Mongolia. This research has focused on Mongolia’s understudied lenok populations by conducting detailed morphometric measurements and genetic analyses to confirm key metrics for accurately distinguishing between these cryptic species. While there are slight differences in colouration and patterns including size and density of their defining black spots, four key metrics were found to be significantly different between the species including gill rakers counts, snout length, lateral line scale counts and body depth. Brachymystax tumensis was also typically heavier than B. lenok at the same length. These results were supported by genetic analyses which clustered the two species into separate clades and displayed unique haplotypes for the Mongolian populations. Initial investigations of diets and gonad maturation indicated an ecological and spatial separation of these sympatric species. The current study is important for these recreationally targeted species which require further research and species-specific management measures to ensure their threatened populations are conserved in Mongolia for the future.

Over the past three decades, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has evolved into one of the leading water management paradigms. Revisiting the starting points and the development of the IWRM concept, this chapter critically analyzes the rationales and the major elements to be considered in the framework of IWRM. IWRM is then related to other recently emerging concepts such as adaptive water management and the Resource Nexus. Even though IWRM has been formally adopted almost worldwide for almost two decades, its implementation remains a challenge for many countries. IWRM also became a major research topic in water sciences and beyond, calling for a reflection of its role and impact. Based on theoretical and empirical analyses of contemporary IWRM research, this chapter provides best practice examples of science based implementation and synthesizes the lessons learnt.

In the framework of the BMBF funded project on Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia (Model region Mongolia, MOMO project, www.iwrm-momo.de) the objectives focused on supplementing, validating and extending the existing surveillance monitoring to the entire river basin for the time series 2006-2017. The MOMO monitoring programme was set up in order to observe seasonal variation in various water quality parameters along the main river course and its tributaries. A detailed sampling survey was carried out along the Kharaa River in the spring, summer and autumn of 2006 to 2017, extending from the headwaters in the Khentii Mountains to the outlet of the river basin. An additional continuous monthly monitoring programme for surface water quality was carried out upstream (Deed Guur) and downstream of Darkhan city (Buren Tolgoi) including the outlet of WWTP Darkhan in the time between 2007 and 2017. This strategy provides information for the efficient and effective design of future monitoring programmes with a focus on operational or investigative issues. The types of water sampling programmes included initial surveys as well as investigative and operational monitoring, point-source characterization, intensive surveys, fixed-station-network monitoring, groundwater monitoring, and special surveys involving chemical and biological monitoring. The water analyses have a focus on nutrients, heavy metals and metalloids, chloride, boron and the main physical water parameters. The dataset comprises also fluvial sediment analyses on heavy metals. In addition in 2017 a special hygienic monitoring (total coliforms, E. coli and fecal coliforms) has been carried out and was included in this database.

In Mongolia, the discharge of insufficiently treated wastewater to the receiving environment due to poor connection rates of informal ger areas to wastewater facilities is a significant problem. To address nutrient emission problems as well as hygiene issues, we investigated the potential of willow vegetation filters inthe Kharaa River Basin in Mongolia by (1) testing a pilot willow wastewater treatment plant and (2) developing different design and cost scenarios of a large willow vegetation filter for the model village of Khongor in order to identify a suitable filter type. This work was carried out in the context of a research and development project aiming at the development and implementation of an IWRM concept for the Kharaa River Basin.Initial results of the pilot plant show that willow vegetation filters are an appropriate way to treat wastewater in Mongolia since treatment performance and operation of the system are satisfying, even under very cold conditions. Moreover, the risk for contaminating the groundwater and soil matrix was found to be low.Among three alternatives, open evapotranspirative vegetation filters were identified as the most appropriate solution. These systems are not lined and allow some percolation of irrigation water into deeper soil zones. Decisive criteria are next to very low life cycle costs, minimum health risk by subsurface irrigation, high operation reliability and comparatively low land requirements.

Like its central Asian neighbors, highly continental Mongolia is not only a waterscarce but also a data-scarce country with regard to environmental information. At the same time, regional effects of global climate change, major land use changes, a booming mining sector and growing cities with insufficient and decayingwater and wastewater infrastructures result in an increasingly unsustainable exploitation and contamination of ground and surface water resources putting at risk both aquatic ecosystems and human health.For the mesoscale (15.000 km²) model region of the Kharaa River Basin (KRB), we investigated (1) the current state of aquatic ecosystems, water availability and quality; (2) past and expected future trends in these fields and their drivers; (3) water governance structures and their recent reforms; (4) technicaland non-technical interventions as potential components of an IWRM. By now, the KRB is recognized as one of the most intensively studied river basins of the country, and considered a model region for science-based water resources management by the Mongolian government which recently adopted the IWRM concept in its National Water Program. Based on the scientific results and practical experiences from a six-years project in the KRB, the potentials and limitations of IWRM implementation in similarly data-scarce regions are discussed.

Until today information about water quality in Northern Mongolia is rare. For this reason the aim of this snap short study was to assess the current chemical status in the region based on 40 surface water samples collected between May and July in 2014. As main outcome of this study we showed that chemical waterquality varied in rivers, which is potentially due to geological differences, anthropogenic pollution and dilution/concentration effects related to evaporation and precipitation. The study indicates that chemical water quality is impacted in particular by mining, industry and urban wastewater discharge. However, amore in depth and long-term study is needed in order to assess the spatial and temporal contamination pattern and evaluate their ecological and public health relevance.

Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world and UNESCO world heritage site, is inhabited by an exceptionally species-rich, largely endemic fauna which is distinct from faunas from other freshwaters in the Palearctic. With regard to species-richness, extremely high abundance of individuals and high total biomass amphipods (Amphipoda, Crustacea) constitute a major, ecologically highly relevant animal taxon of Lake Baikal. The “immiscibility barrier” of faunas, i.e., the separation of amphipod faunas from Lake Baikal and other Palearctic waters, is believed to be related with the high degree of adaptation of Lake Baikal species to the specific environmental conditions of their habitats; under these conditions they outcompete potentially invasive non-Baikal species that are unable to establish stable populations in Lake Baikal. It is a question of great interest whether the current global change related, massive alterations of temperature and chemical conditions in Lake Baikal will favor potential invasive species. Our molecular and physiological studies with representative endemic Eulimnogammarus species show that these species are indeed equipped to deal with stress from unfavorable environmental conditions and in comparison to a potentially invasive amphipod may not necessarily be more sensitive. However, considerable differences in stress responses among the different species suggest that species shifts in the Lake Baikal ecosystem may occur when environmental conditions continue to change.

Globally and especially in the naturally water-scarce Mongolia, the quantity but also the quality of water resources are threatened by a rising pressure caused by population and economic growth and the resulting environmental alterations. The IWRM concept as well as the EU-WFD aim at the protection and restoration of water resources and aquatic ecosystems byapplying integrative management strategies. Whereas the IWRM concept is criticized mostly because of its vagueness that misses clear implementation guidance, the EUWFDrepresents a clearly defined framework to achieve a sustainable management of natural water resources. Despite being a specifically European framework, the diverse preconditions in the EU member states require the EUWFD to be implementable in very different country-specific contexts. In this way, the EU-WFD may potentially also be an appropriate tool to enhance sustainable water management in non-European countries that actually have problems in the implementation of their national IWRM concepts.