Cores can potentially yield proxy climatic data at annual resolution. O indicate a humid climate and vice versa. It is difficult to obtain quantitative estimates of water depth from either proxy. In addition taphonomic processes can mix taxa from different habitats, complicating the reconstruction of lake chemistry. Marginal cores offer increased sensitivity to water depth variations, but are more prone to hiatuses than central cores.
Hiatuses are more difficult to detect in cores than in sections.
The use of multiple cores may help to determine if a lithological change represents a hiatus, in which case it will truncate the underlying sediment at different ages. Certain diatom species are characteristic of oligotrophic waters, others of eutrophic waters, this allows the qualitative reconstruction of lake nutrient status. There are a number of difficulties with using diatoms as a tool for reconstructing palaeolimnological conditions. These include differential dissolution of more delicate species, such as Cyclotella stelligera , enriching the assemblage in more robust forms, such as C. meneghiniana , this would bias any attempt at reconstructing palaeolimnological conditions. Non-analogue assemblages are those in the core include either species or combinations of species that are not found in modern samples.