Dear colleague,

Improved comparability and traceability of data for nutrients in the world's oceans are needed to improve our knowledge of change in the deep oceans, and for studies of global change. In particular this is necessary for reliable investigation of changes in the concentrations of nutrients in the ocean, and the tightness coupling between the nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon cycles.
A Joint IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrient Standards (SGONS), is now working to enable better comparability between data sets measured at different times, and by different laboratories. The aspiration of the IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrient Standards is that over the next ten years quality and inter-comparability of nutrient measurements will have been improved considerably from the present position. This can be achieved by the wide- spread use of RMNS materials. This requires that RMNS be reliably produced in sufficient quantities and that the global community develops trust in their use along with the continued development of best practices.
In this meeting, we shall discuss progress since February 2009 and future tasks.
We look forward to your participation.
Chairs of SGONS :
Michio AOYAMA & David HYDES