Windrow is a long-established term for the aggregations of seafoam, seaweeds, plankton and natural debris that appear on the ocean surface. Here, we define a “litter windrow” as any aggregation of floating litter at the submesoscale domain (<10 km horizontally), regardless of the force inducing the surface convergence, be it wind or other forces such as tides or density-driven currents. The marine litter windrows observed to date usually form stripes from tens up to thousands of meters long, with litter densities often exceeding 10 small items (<2 cm) per m² or 1 large item (>2 cm) per 10 m². Litter windrows are generally overlooked in research due to their dispersion, small size and ephemeral nature. However, applied research on windrows offers unique possibilities to advance on the knowledge and management of marine litter pollution. Litter windrows are hot spots of interaction with marine life. In addition, since the formation of dense litter windrows requires especially high loads of floating litter in the environment, their detection from space-borne sensors, aerial surveys or other platforms might be used to flag areas and periods of severe pollution. Monitoring and assessing of management plans, identification of pollution sources, or impact prevention are identified as some of the most promising fields of application for the marine litter windrows. In the present Perspective, we develop a conceptual framework and point out the main obstacles, opportunities and methodological approaches to address the study of litter windrows.

Windrow是长期存在的术语，用于表示出现在海洋表面的海泡，海藻，浮游生物和天然碎片的聚集。在这里，我们将“乱堆杂草”定义为亚尺度范围内（水平<10 km）漂浮垃圾的任何聚集，而不考虑引起表面会聚的力是风还是其他力（例如潮汐或密度驱动的电流）。迄今为止观察到的海洋垃圾堆通常形成数十到数千米长的条纹，垃圾密度通常超过每m ² 10个小物品（<2 cm）或每10 m ² 1个大物品（> 2 cm）。乱扔杂草由于其分散，体积小和短暂的性质而在研究中通常被忽略。然而，对草料堆的应用研究为推进海洋垃圾污染的知识和管理提供了独特的可能性。乱堆杂草是与海洋生物相互作用的热点。另外，由于形成密集的杂草堆在环境中需要特别高的漂浮垃圾负荷，因此可以使用从星载传感器，航测或其他平台检测到的杂物来标记严重污染的区域和时期。监视和评估管理计划，识别污染源或防止影响被认为是海洋垃圾堆放场最有希望的应用领域。在目前的角度来看，