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The Global Trend of Microplastic Research in Freshwater Ecosystems
Summary
This bibliometric analysis tracked the evolution of freshwater microplastic research from 2013 to 2022 using over 800 published papers, identifying three distinct growth phases from early development to rapid expansion. Researchers found that research focus has shifted over time from documenting where microplastics occur to studying their biological toxicity, effects on organisms, and associated health risks. The study also notes that international collaboration, while growing, remains limited and concentrated among a small group of countries.
The study of microplastics and their impact on aquatic ecosystems has received increasing attention in recent years. Drawing from an analysis of 814 papers related to microplastics published between 2013 and 2022 in the Web of Science Core Repository, this paper explores trends, focal points, and national collaborations in freshwater microplastics research, providing valuable insights for future studies. The findings reveal three distinct stages of microplastics: nascent development (2013-2015), slow rise (2016-2018), and rapid development (2019-2022). Over time, the focus of research has shifted from "surface", "effect", "microplastic pollution", and "tributary" to "toxicity", "species", "organism", "threat", "risk", and "ingestion". While international cooperation has become more prevalent, the extent of collaboration remains limited, mostly concentrated among English-speaking countries or English and Spanish/Portuguese-speaking countries. Future research directions should encompass the bi-directional relationship between microplastics and watershed ecosystems, incorporating chemical and toxicological approaches. Long-term monitoring efforts are crucial to assessing the sustained impacts of microplastics.
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