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, long-term mammal burrows, archaeological sites, buried soils, coastal deposits, and others. They reflect the structure and long-term changes of ecosystems in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, 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. We use various methods in the study of deposits — radiocarbon dating, osteology, helminthology, pollen analysis, phytolith analysis, botanical analysis, dendroclimatochronology, geomorphology, stable isotope analysis, and others.
