Uvs Lake Basin
The location of Uvs lake is in northwest of the country and its largest lake of Mongolia (3,350sq.km), shallow (10-20m depth) and very saline lake which bounded on all sides by mountain. The site is made up of twelve protected areas representing major biomes of eastern Eurasia with 600 km east to west and 120km north to south. In all, the lake basin displays a range of hydrological characteristics and surrounding boast an extraordinary landscape diversity ranging from cold desert to desert steppe, conifer, deciduous and floodplain forests to diverse wetland, marshland, freshwater and saltwater system and fixed sand dunes and even tundra. The main feeder to Uvs lake is Tes-Khem river run from the surrounding mountains as its source in fresh-water lake but no rivers flow out of the basin. The Uvs lake basin has an extreme temperature range that swing from a low of -58 degrees Celsius during the winter up to 40 Celsius in the summer. Containing a number of ecosystems of basin supports a rich faunal diversity such as the argali-wild sheep, Siberian ibex, pallas’s cat and endangered snow leopard. Due to geographical situation its diversity and the relatively low amount of human impact, basin is recognized as UNESCO biosphere reserve.