Report of the IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrients Standards (SGONS)

A meeting of the joint IOC-ICES Study Group on Nutrient Standards (SGONS) was held in Paris, France, on 23–24 March 2010. It focused on the ongoing activities of the SGONS and plans for extended international collaborations to establish global com-parability of the nutrient data from the world’s ocean. Thirty two scientists and ex-perts from 11 countries and 2 delegates from IOC attended the meeting. The discussions followed the Terms of References of SGONS established in July 2009. De-velopment of the reference materials for nutrients in seawater (RMNS) were also dis-cussed in collaboration with the producers. The background and history of SGONS and an international nutrients scale system INSS and the progress with the produc-tion of RMNS materials and their current availability were reported. The production of RMNS and the latest status of the RMNS production facility, current status on the certification of RMNS for nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate at the National Me-trology Institute of Japan were also reported.