The German-Russian cooperation Laptev Sea 2000 investigates the shallow shelf area of the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding terrestrial areas in front of the mouth's of rivers Lena, Yana, and Khatanga. Laptev Sea is supposed to be one of the key areas for sea ice production in the Arctic Ocean and hence for energy interchange between atmosphere and ocean.

Within this project, University of Bremen, section Meerestechnik/Sensorik conducts temperature measurements within the sea floor above submarine permafrost. Durig expedition Transdrift V with DPFVS Polarstern in August 1998 temperature gradients on the shallow shelf as well as on the continental slope could be gathered. A remarkable feature of this shelf area is that it had been terrestrial during last sea level lowstand (~-100 m NN 15000 a ago). It suffered extreme polar climate at that time of glacial maximum. Some positions of measurement are above and some below the minimum paleo-coastline, as indicated in the figure.

A first result of investigations is that the sea bottom seems to be in equilibrium with the water column. Temperature gradients are virtually zero, energy exchange between water and bottom is minimal. Thus the underlying permafrost is at a temperature, very near to its melting point.