Photos: Life in rural Mongolia

Mongolia's flat, arid Gobi desert--where scorching summers follow extreme, wind-torn winters--is a portrait of extremes. Nomads take advantage of the summer months to breed and feed their livestock. Saline lakes like the one pictured are important in the pastoral ecosystem; the salt encourages horses to eat more grass, fattening them in preparation for the frigid, barren winter.

Photo by Andrei Marin/Institute for Geography, University of Bergen