Global warming has an impact on permafrost. Factorsaggravating permafrost degradation are deforestationin the taiga and desertification in the steppe. Therefore,determination of the trends of permafrost change is ofboth practical and scientific importance. Recently,geocryologists and other scientists from many countrieshave published articles about this subject (e.g., Cheng etal., 1993; Gavrilova, 1993; Nelson et al., 1993; Wang andZhang, 1996; Zhou and Wang, 1996).

Even more recently research on permafrost inMongolia has been undertaken as exemplified by thisreport. The author has been making ground temperature measurements in the Selenge River Basin(Sharkhuu, 1982, 1993; Sharkhuu and Luvsandagva,1975; Sharkhuu and Undarmaa, 1986). The data to dateindicate a mean annual increase in temperature at sitesthroughout the basin.