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Dear colleague, The comparability and traceability of chemical data in the worldfs oceans are of primary importance to Marine Science, and to the studies of Global Change. With global climate changes there is the requirement for better comparability between data sets so as it is possible to investigate reliably the tight coupling between the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in the ocean, with that of carbon. An International Workshop on chemical reference materials in ocean science was held in Tsukuba, Japan in Oct. 2007 where participants agreed to continue the international collaborations with the aim of establishing global comparability of the nutrients data from the world ocean. An gInternational Nutrients Scale System (INSS)h in seawater was agreed as the appropriate way to achieve this goal. In 2009 (Feb. 10th-12th) a second INSS international workshop will be held to discuss progresses since 2007, and discuss future tasks. We look forward to your participation. Michio AOYAMA & The organizers |