Morestep-Mobility at risk: Sustaining the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

The research project is a collaborative and interdisciplinary research project of Mongolian and German partners funded by BMBF. The main aim is to bring social and ecological sciences together to identify societal drivers that can lead to an ecological tipping point of the Mongolian steppe ecosystem. The objective is the early identification including possible consequences for nature and society. The project particularly emphasizes the importance of mobility of wildlife and livestock in the context of societal change and seeks to contribute to the sustainable development of the Mongolian Steppe ecosystem.

The datasets here are related to "Vegetation Change". Primary data are information on plant species composition, forage quantity and quality, fecal digestibility and soil chemical properties along large abiotic and biotic environmental gradients. Data were collected in 2019, 2020, and 2021, mainly in summer (partly also for spring and autumn) from eastern Mongolian steppe, covering 11 intensively studied sites and more than 50 additional sites. Secondary data include also climate data (monthly precipitation, temperature, snow depth) and livestock abundance for intensively studied sites which are extracted from relevant primary data sources.