During the first field campaign in autumn 2009, two sediment cores, Co1215 (15,75 m) and Co1216 (5,75 m), were recovered from the Macedonian part of Lake Prespa (Figure 1). Coring was carried out from a floating platform, using a short gravity corer and a 3 m long percussion piston corer (UWITEC Co.). Core Co1215 was retrieved in the northern part of the lake, where the shallow seismic survey indicated a water depth of 14,5 m and a widely undisturbed sediment succession with slightly inclined bedding and parallel reflectors. Core Co1216 from the northwestern part was recovered, where the seismic survey indicated a water depth of 32 m and a channel structure.

Both cores are at present studied with a multi-disciplinary approach. Plant microfossil analyses and sedimentological and other micropalaeontological investigations on a sub-millennial scale in sediment sequences from these lakes will offer the opportunity to reconstruct even short time climate changes. Furthermore, pollen and ostracods offer the possibility to develop transfer functions in order to reconstruct quantitative changes in regional climate and hydrological conditions of the lakes. The chronology of the records is based on radiocarbon dating and tephrostratigraphy.