The laboratory's main task is to study the patterns of historical development of present-day ecosystems. This task is addressed through comprehensive study of deposits of various origins — zoogenic deposits in caves and rock shelters, peat bogs, archaeological sites, buried soils, and coastal deposits. They reflect the structure and long-term changes of ecosystems, the history of the ranges of individual species and groups of animals and plants, changes in the morphological features and ecology of common species, and the overall picture of the evolution of present-day biogeocenoses during the Holocene. Various methods are used in the study of deposits: radiocarbon dating, osteology, helminthology, pollen analysis, phytolith analysis, botanical analysis, dendroclimatochronology, stable isotope analysis, and others.
The main focus is on identifying patterns of long-term dynamics in present-day ecosystems of the Northern Hemisphere. In recent years, this has included studies of the coastal ecosystems of the Bering Sea (Chukotka, the Commander and Aleutian Islands), the forest ecosystems of European Russia (Moscow, Tver, and Vologda regions) and the North Caucasus, the arid ecosystems of Mongolia and the Negev Desert (Israel), and the highland ecosystems of Ethiopia.