Preliminary investigations gave rise to address the following scientific questions:

1. Can zonal differences in climate along the W-E (marine-continental) transect in Northern Poland be detected by using geochemical, biological and stable isotope proxies?

2. Is it possible to detect regional influences of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in these sedimentary records?

3. Are there evidences of periodicities or regional variations of reconstructed precipitation and temperature parameters?

4. Can rapid climatic shifts, e.g. the early Holocene (Preboreal: 11.300-10.800 cal. BP and Boreal: 10.300-9.800 cal. BP) oscillations, the early to mid-Holocene transition (8200-7800 cal. BP), the Mid-Holocene Transition (MHT: 5500-4000 cal. BP), the Subboreal/Subatlantic Transition (centered around 2800 cal. BP), the Medieval Warm Period (MWP: ca. AD 800-1300) and the Little Ice Age (LIA: ca. AD 1500-1900) be detected and how are they expressed in these lake records locally and along the transect also spatially?

5. What are the relationships between the responses of natural ecosystems to climate change and the development of past human societies?

6. Is there a trend in the regional settlement and land use history that can be reconstructed using these natural archives?

7. Is there a relation between climate and land-use in eastern central Europe and how is this reflected in the sedimentary records?

8. What are the driving forces for natural eutrophication processes along this W-E transect and how did they influence the lakes?

9. Can elemental ratios determined with high-resolution XRF logging be applied to enhance the interpretative power of lake sediment interpretation?