Biodiversity of Mongolia: Checklist of diatoms, including new distributional reports of 31 taxa

A checklist of 516 diatom tars representing 74 genera that have been previo usly reported Rom Mongolia is presented. The checklist represents nearly 10 0 years of published and new research on Mongolia's diatom flora, the resul ts of which have not been widely distributed to international audiences. Mo ngolia has a variety of aquatic habitats including rivers, springs. soil, a nd freshwater and saline lakes. Diatom distribution in Mongolia is strongly related to water chemistry and microhabitat. In addition to the checklist, 31 diatoms are reported as new distributions from Mongolia bringing the to tal richness to 547 taxa representing 82 genera. Seven nomenclatural transf ers are proposed for diatoms that occur in Mongolia [Caloneis dorogostaisky i (Ostrup) comb, nov., Luticola binodis (Hust.) comb. nov., stat. nov., Pla nothidium baicalensis (Skvortsov & K.T. Meyer) comb. nov., Planothidium oes trupii (A. Cleve) comb, nov., stat, nov., Planothidium ellipticum (Grunow) comb. nov., stat. nov., Planothidium calcar (P.T. Cleve) comb. nov.. Pseudo staurosira binodis (Ehrenb.) comb, nov.].