Diatom analysis of sediments of Lake Big Miassovo of South Ural (Russia)

Abstract

Diatoms are generally used to infer environmental changes. The purpose of this work is to study the taxonomic composition and ecological features of diatoms in the palaeoarchives from Lake Big Miassovo (South Ural, Russia). A core was taken in the deepest part of Lake Big Miassovo in July 2018. The core covered the time span in 13 500 years. The diatom analysis of 51 samples revealed 124 taxa from 47 genera. The highest number of species was observed for Epithemia. The analysis of the ecological structure of this diatom assemblage shows that it is dominated of cosmopolitan, alkaliphilic benthic, and oligogalobic species with the growth under the moderate temperatures. The prevalence of Handmannia comta (Ehren.) Kociolek and Khursevich emend. Genkal in the sediments was established. The sub-dominant species were Amphora pediculus (Kutz.) Grun., Karayevia clevei (Grun.) Bukht., Aulacoseira ambigua (Grun.) Simon., Pseudostaurosira brevistriata (Grun.) D.M. Williams and Round, Stephanodiscus alpinus Hust. in Hub.-Pest.