We are studying the combined ecological and evolutionary
consequences of global climate change and grazing pressures by
nomadic pastoralism in northern Mongolia. The project is a
collaboration involving the faculty in Ecology & Evolution in
the Department of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania
together with collaborators at the Academy of Natural Sciences
of Philadelphia, the National University of Mongolia, the
Mongolian University of Science and Technology and the Mongolian
Academy of Sciences. The project is supported by a 5-year
(2007-2012) grant from the NSF Parternships for International
Research and Education (PIRE). Some of the most extreme
temperature increases associated with global warming are
expected to occur in northern Mongolia, and increases in both
temperature and the length of the growing season are already
apparent. The ecology of northern Mongolia is of special
interest because taiga forest and steppe grasslands come
together there and because the steppe vegetation is heavily
grazed