Professor
C. Riley Nelson’s lecture in the Kennedy Center for International Studies on
Wednesday integrated the science aspects of stoneflies and other insects in
Mongolia on the water sources, as well as the culture and love — including
people, living things, interactions and our stewardship with the land. He
called the lecture “Mongolia: Saving the World One Steppe at a Time, One Stream
at a Time,”

“I
went to Mongolia to study stoneflies,” Nelson said. “I learned so much more.” Nelson
is an avid photographer and showed many photos of the people and cultural
lifestyles he encountered on his five one-month stints in Mongolia. “It taught
me things about myself that I didn’t know,” Nelson said.

He
opened with a slideshow of photographs playing to a recording of Mongolians
singing cultural songs to illustrate the way of life there. Mongolia is an
example of international cooperation based on people like Chinggis Khaan, who
was deemed “Man of the Millennium” because of his success in obtaining an
expansive empire and uniting central Asia.

“Mongolia
is a rich country … between two super powers [Russia and China],” Nelson said.

The Soviets tried to implement Communism, but after they left Mongolia, they
took all leaders and management with them. The Mongolians had no leaders
trained to run the country. The quality of the water also decreased after the
Soviets left.

The
purpose of Nelson’s time in Mongolia was to help teach Mongolians how to judge
when rivers are of good quality through the health of insects. These rivers are
a main source of fresh water, as the Selenge River empties into Lake Baikal in
Russia, which houses one-fifth of the world’s fresh water.

Stoneflies
help demonstrate the quality of rivers because they are sensitive to pollution
and react to changes in the water. There is a gap of knowledge of where
different insects live, and Nelson is one who is trying to figure out why.