Research subject. The article presents the results of dating two dolerite dikes differing in geochemical features from a section along the Iset river in the area of Smolinskoe settlement (the Eastern zone of the Middle Urals). Materials and methods. The dating was performed by an U-Pb ID-TIMS technique for single zircon grains using an artificial 205Pb/235U tracer in the laboratory of geochronology and isotope geochemistry of the Geological Institute of the Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The lead isotopic composition and uranium and lead concentrations were measured using a Finnigan-MAT (RPQ) seven-channel mass spectrometer in dynamic mode using a secondary electron multiplier and RPQ quadrupole in ion counting mode. Results. The dikes were dated 330 ± 3 Ma and 240 ± 2 Ma. Conclusions. The research results indicate different ages of dolerite dikes developed within the Eastern zone of the Middle Urals. The oldest of the two established age levels corresponds to the Early Carboniferous era. This fact, along with the proximity of the dolerites to the petrochemical features of the basaltoids of the Early Carboniferous Beklenischevsky volcanic complex, allows these bodies to be considered as hypabyssal comagmates of these volcanics. The youngest obtained age level – Triassic – indicates that the introduction of some dolerite dikes was associated with the final phases of the trapp formation developed rarely within the eastern outskirts of the Urals and widely further east in the foundation (pre-Jurassic basement) of the West-Siberian Plate.
Species composition of desmid algae and their habitat preferences in water bodies of Ekaterinburg city were studied during the 2013–2017. Thirty-seven species and subspecific taxa which belong to 12 genera and 2 families were identified, of which 17 species are new for the eastern macroslope of the Middle Urals. Canonical correspondence analysis, which was performed to reveal habitat preferences, demonstrates that the majority of analyzed species prefer quarry lakes, ponds and overgrown lake shores, contrary to fens and rivers.
Desmid algae (Charophyta: Conjugatophyceae) of Ekaterinburg, Middle Urals, Russia