Baruun Tar Nuur

Baruun Tar Nuur, or Barun-Torey, is the western of the two Torey Lakes in the Transbaikal borderland of Russia and Mongolia. The shallow soda lake lies in an enclosed basin connected through the Utochi channel to Zun-Torey. No river carries its water to the sea.

The Ulz and Imalka rivers feed the lake, but rainfall cycles can expand or nearly empty it. Reed beds, salt flats and wet meadows shift across the basin as water rises and falls. Cranes, gulls and waterfowl use the wetlands for nesting, feeding and migration, while fish survive in permanent pools.

Mongolian and Russian herders used the surrounding grassland seasonally, moving livestock between wells and lakeside pasture. Fishermen took advantage when water remained open. The lakes’ identity comes from their extreme variability: a wide water body in wet years and an alkaline plain in dry years. Herders moved with changing shorelines. Herders avoided brackish water when wells remained fresh. Crane nesting concentrated around shallow reed margins. Dry years exposed salt crusts and new grass. Wetlands supported migratory cranes. Herders used exposed lakebed grass. Reed beds shift. Lakes feed birds.