X International Symposium on Marine Sciences (ISMS Cádiz 2026): Advances in Physical Oceanography, Marine Biology, Geology, Chemistry, and Marine Litter

The International Symposium on Marine Sciences (ISMS) is the most important gathering for marine sciences in Spain and one of the most relevant in Europe. Promoted by the Conferencia de Decanos de Ciencias del Mar (CDCM) and organised on a rotating basis by the Spanish universities offering the degree in Marine Sciences, ISMS brings the national and international marine research community together to share advances across the full breadth of ocean science. Its tenth edition, ISMS Cádiz 2026, is hosted by the Universidad de Cádiz on 8–10 July 2026.



ISMS unites, under one roof, three long-standing scientific meetings, each representing a core discipline of ocean science:



• EOF — Encuentro de la Oceanografía Física (XIX Meeting of Physical Oceanography): the reference meeting of the Spanish physical oceanography community, covering large-scale, mesoscale and submesoscale circulation, coastal and operational oceanography, autonomous platforms and gliders, ocean methods, and oceanography under climate change.

• SIQUIMAR — Seminario Ibérico de Química Marina (Iberian Seminar on Marine Chemistry): founded in 1983 as a meeting point for chemical oceanographers across the Iberian Peninsula, covering marine and coastal chemistry, biogeochemistry, trace metals, emerging contaminants, and marine ecotoxicology.

• BAMAR — the meeting dedicated to marine litter: plastic litter and microplastics, their detection, sources, transport and distribution, and their ecological and toxicological impacts on marine organisms and ecosystems.



Together, EOF, SIQUIMAR and BAMAR span the physics, chemistry, and pollution dimensions of the ocean and their consequences for marine life — a combination that maps naturally onto the scope of Frontiers in Marine Science. For more information on the symposium, please visit https://ismscadiz.es/



This Research Topic aims to capture and extend the science presented at ISMS Cádiz 2026, giving the marine research community a lasting, citable, and fully open-access home for their work. By bringing together contributions across physical oceanography, marine chemistry, and marine litter, the collection seeks to advance fundamental understanding of marine ecosystems while informing conservation, monitoring, and management. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary work at the interface of ocean physics, chemistry, and pollution, and studies that connect these processes to the biology and resilience of marine organisms and habitats.



We invite submissions from participants of ISMS Cádiz 2026 and the wider marine science community. Specific themes of interest include, but are not limited to:



• Physical oceanography: large-scale, mesoscale and submesoscale circulation; coastal and operational oceanography; upwelling systems; autonomous platforms and gliders; sea-level rise and marine heatwaves

• Marine chemistry and biogeochemistry: trace metals, nutrients and carbon fluxes; emerging contaminants; marine ecotoxicology; analytical and passive-sampling methods

• Marine litter: plastic litter and microplastics — detection, sources, transport and distribution; ecological and toxicological impacts; fate and degradation in the marine environment

• Cross-cutting studies linking physical processes to the transport and fate of contaminants and litter, and their combined effects on marine life under climate change



We accept original research articles, comprehensive reviews, mini reviews, perspectives, methods, and brief research reports. Authors should select the theme that best fits their work; the editorial team will group submissions into coherent thematic sections for clarity and focus.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: physical oceanography, ocean circulation, marine chemistry, biogeochemistry, trace metals, emerging contaminants, marine litter, microplastics, marine ecotoxicology, climate change, Iberian peninsula

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.