Understanding the climatic instability on decadal to centennial timescales is essential for determining the baseline and recent trends of climatic variations. Our study has the aim to reconstruct climatic variability and climate impact on lakes over the last millennium in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the coldest region of Eurasia. This goal will be achieved by means of chironomid analysis (Diptera: Chironomidae) of littoral and deep-water sediment records from three arctic lakes located in the northeastern Siberian tundra. Special attention will be placed on studying the response of littoral and deep-water chironomid assemblages to the past climatic variability and changes in duration of ice-covered period of lakes. Chironomid-based evidence of these changes will provide independent assessment of the climate impact on in-lake processes. Reconstructions of climatic changes in Arctic Yakutia over the past millennium will indicate whether recent climate change is unusual in the context of past variability. The obtained results will contribute to a spatial reconstruction of climate variability through time in Eurasia and may serve as background knowledge for future climate modeling. The proposed project will be realized in the Palaeoecology section, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands, and will be strongly interlinked with ongoing research at the host institution. The group is host to a number of multi-proxy palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental investigations both on the Northern and Southern hemisphere. The applicant will be directly involved in training of researchers at the host institution in East Palaearctic chironomid analysis and in the interpretation of palaeoecological results from Siberian lakes developed by researchers at the host institution. This will guarantee a close interaction between the applicant and researchers at the host institution and will ensure a direct exchange of knowledge and scientific expertise.