SCOR held its 2017 Annual Meeting last week in Cape Town, South Africa, celebrating the 60^th anniversary of SCOR. An important feature of every SCOR annual meeting is consideration of proposals for new SCOR working groups. The proposals are reviewed by national SCOR committees, partner organizations, and others before the annual meeting and a significant portion of time at the meeting is devoted to discussing the proposals. This year three proposals were considered timely, relevant to SCOR and achievable using a SCOR working group approach.

• Integration of Plankton-Observing Sensor Systems to Existing Global Sampling Programs (P-OBS)
• Eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS): diversity, coupled dynamics and sensitivity to climate change
• Floating Litter and its Oceanic TranSport Analysis and Modelling (FLOTSAM)

We are happy to inform you that the P-OBS proposal was conceived under the strong influence of the recommendations stemming from the IMSOO workshop, co-organized by IOCCP earlier this year. For more information on those recommendations please see the section on Plankton Community Changes demonstration theme in the workshop report HERE.

Moreover, the EBUS proposal is very complementary to other IMSOO follow-up actions, as recommended by the IMSOO Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ) demonstration theme. This week, a few members of the EBUS WG are attending an IOCCP organized workshop aimed at developing a Science Plan for a project called Variability in the Oxycline and its ImpaCts on the Ecosystem (VOICE). For more information on VOICE plans see the OMZ chapter in the IMSOO workshop report HERE.