The lab was found in 1991. Initially the major task was to study communities of benthic organisms. Soon the activity had been shifted more towards using molecular biological methods and traits both for taxonomic purposes and analysis of different evolutionary problems. Accordingly, methods and approaches of molecular phylogenetics became more and more intesely used.
With the accumulation of data on nucleotide sequences of couple of genes in several most diverse animal groups it became possible to address more questions at population level. This allows one to start matching evolutionary (including speciations/extinctions and demographic events) history of a species to the very well studied geological history of Lake Baikal. Very recently the increasing amount of data opened way to ctudy the role of between-species ecological interactions within communities. This returns us to the questions of the starting period of the group.
Increasing complexity of biological questions adressed and data processing methods employed requires more and more sophisticated statistics and understanding tools. Thus appeared the third major direction of studies: computer simulations.
