convener:Atsuhiko Isobe(Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University), Kiichiro Kawamura(Yamaguchi University), Yusuke Okazaki(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University), Masashi Tsuchiya(Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)

Mismanaged plastic wastes accounting for 70% of marine debris remain persistently in the marine environment, even if they are degraded and fragmentized to tiny microplastics. To date, it has been unknown how this anthropogenic, buoyant, and persistent matter which was first appeared in the earth history, contaminates (or is incorporated into) the earth system. The ocean plastic study requires the insight and methodology of a variety of earth sciences such as the oceanography, geology, and palaeontology. Studies on the plastic circulation loaded from the land/atmosphere to upper oceans and bottom sediments, studies on microplastics as a proxy of the 'Anthropocene', and studies to establish procedures in monitoring and analyzing macro/microplastics are welcomed.