4. Two river–lake systems — similarities and differences
Despite widespread occurrence of saline lakes in Mongolia, their chemistry has not been well studied. Ion chemistry of water collect- ed from desert lakes is subject to considerable changes depending on the region. All Mongolian lakes are of continental origin, and have ionic compositions dominated by Na+, K+, Cl−, and SO24−. In the river–lake systems under study, one may also indicate the prev- alence of Ca2+ (Table 1). Si, Sr and Ba, Al, Sc and Li represent the most significant contribution in water chemistry in the studied samples