Dear colleagues, We are planning a theme section in Marine Ecology Progress Series (MEPS) on the topic of "Mechanisms of Physical-Biological Coupling Forcing Biological Hotspots" based on a PICES 2011 topic session. We intend thisMEPS theme section will examine variability in physical processes that result in marine hotspots and also examineissues of spatial and temporal scale in the formation and persistence of biological hotspots. We recognize the term hotspot can be defined in multiple ways and feel this theme section can help narrow down the concept of a marine hotspot. Manuscripts that pass peer review will be accepted for publication in MEPS regardless of whether we have sufficient manuscripts for a theme section or not. Please contact Elliott Hazen (ehazen@alumni.duke.edu) and Rob Suryan (rob.suryan@oregonstate.edu) if you are interested in submitting manuscripts. We anticipate all manuscripts to be submitted by 1 July 2012. If interested, please respond to the following questions by 15 April: 1) Will you submit a manuscript, and if so please send along the topic and title (and abstract if you have it)? 2) Can your manuscript be ready for a July 1st submission deadline? It is not necessary to have been a part of the PICES S2 session to contribute, so please post the attached notice or forward to colleagues who might be interested in submitting a manuscript to the MEPS theme section. Thank you. Sincerely, Elliott Hazen Rob Suryan Yutaka Watanuki Flyer here: http://db.tt/VyPtDaBs