Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Trends, challenges, and research pathways in emerging contaminants: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis

This large-scale bibliometric analysis reviewed over 62,000 studies on emerging contaminants published between 2000 and 2024, finding that microplastics are among the fastest-growing areas of environmental health research. The analysis highlights that understanding how microplastics interact with other pollutants like pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors is a critical frontier for protecting human health.

2025 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Bibliometric Analysis and Research Trends on Microplastic Pollution in the Soil and Terrestrial Ecosystems

This bibliometric analysis tracks research trends on microplastic pollution in soil and terrestrial ecosystems, revealing a rapidly growing field with increasing global collaboration. Researchers identified key themes including microplastic sources, soil organism impacts, and interactions with other pollutants. The study maps out knowledge gaps and suggests future research priorities for understanding how microplastics affect land-based environments.

2024 Environmental Research Engineering and Management 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect and environmental behaviour of microplastics in soil

This bibliometric analysis and review covers research on microplastic environmental behavior in soils from 2012 to 2022, documenting rapid growth in publications and identifying key research themes including transport, persistence, and interactions with soil biota and chemicals. The review highlights remaining knowledge gaps and emerging trends in the field of soil microplastic pollution.

2023 Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy 5 citations
Article Tier 2

A Bibliometric Analysis of Soil Pollution due to Microplastics

This bibliometric analysis reviewed the scientific literature on soil microplastic pollution to map research trends, key contributors, and knowledge gaps. The study found growing global research interest in this area and highlighted that microplastics entering the food chain through contaminated soil represents an underappreciated pathway to human exposure.

2020 Insecta mundi 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Contaminants of emerging concern in agricultural soils: Current understanding, overlooked issues, and future priorities

This review synthesizes evidence on how contaminants of emerging concern, including pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and PFAS, enter agricultural soils, accumulate in crops, and affect ecological and human health. The study found that these contaminants pose complex risks including antimicrobial resistance and sublethal impacts on plant and soil systems, while highlighting critical knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.

2026 Plants People Planet
Article Tier 2

The microplastics pollution in agricultural soils global trends and prospects research: bibliometric analysis

This bibliometric analysis reviewed global research trends on microplastic pollution in agricultural soils, finding rapidly growing scientific interest and identifying key knowledge gaps. Soil microplastic contamination poses risks to soil health, crop growth, and ultimately human food safety.

2023 IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental geochemistry of emerging contaminants: impacts on agroecosystem function, food security, and human health

This review examines how emerging contaminants including microplastics, PFAS, pharmaceuticals, and engineered nanomaterials threaten agricultural ecosystems and food safety. Researchers found that these pollutants persist in soil, accumulate in crops, and disrupt beneficial soil organisms, creating complex risks that are difficult to manage with current approaches. The study emphasizes the urgent need for integrated monitoring and remediation strategies to protect both food production and human health.

2026 Environmental Geochemistry and Health 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Global trends and hotspots evolution in soil microplastic pollution research: A bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science

Researchers analyzed global trends in soil microplastic research using bibliometric tools and found the field is still developing compared to water-based studies, with hotspots growing rapidly since 2018. China, the US, the Netherlands, and Australia lead publications, and the field needs to shift focus from measuring toxicity to understanding how microplastics affect entire soil ecosystems.

2024 Ecological Indicators 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Health risk analysis of microplastics in soil in the 21st century: A scientometrics review

This bibliometric review mapped global research on health risks of microplastics in soil from 2001 to the present, finding a sharp increase in publications after 2016 and identifying plastic mulch, plastic waste, and sewage sludge as the most studied MP sources in soil. The review highlighted growing concern about dietary exposure through MPs taken up by food crops grown in contaminated soils.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 9 citations
Review Tier 2

Research progress and hotspot analysis of soil microplastics: a bibliometrics-based review

This bibliometric review analyzes research trends and hotspots in the study of soil microplastics, mapping the field's growth and key focus areas over recent years. Researchers found that topics like microplastic transport, ecological effects on soil organisms, and interactions with other pollutants have become increasingly prominent research themes.

2023 Frontiers in Environmental Science 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental fate and impacts of microplastics in soil ecosystems: Progress and perspective

This review summarized knowledge on microplastics in soil environments, covering occurrence across agricultural, industrial, and urban soils, transport pathways, and ecological risks to soil organisms and plant communities. The authors identify key data gaps and methodological challenges that currently limit understanding of microplastic fate and impact in terrestrial systems.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 509 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Scientometric Analysis

A scientometric analysis of global microplastic literature in terrestrial ecosystems (Web of Science, 1986–2020) used co-occurrence visualization and citation mapping to characterize the rapid growth of terrestrial MP research and identify emerging focus areas such as soil health, agricultural plastics, and food safety.

2020 Sustainability 77 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro(nano)plastics as Emerging Pollutants in Global Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems: A Bibliometric Analysis

This bibliometric analysis mapped the global landscape of micro- and nanoplastic research in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems using data from major scientific databases. Researchers identified key research trends, leading countries, and the most active institutions contributing to the field. The study reveals that while research output has surged in recent years, significant knowledge gaps remain around nanoplastics and their long-term ecological effects.

2024 Environmental Forensics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

A bibliometric analysis of global research hotspots and progress on microplastics in soil‒plant systems

This bibliometric analysis reviews the rapidly growing field of research on microplastics in soil and plant systems. Researchers identified key research hotspots including how microplastics affect agricultural productivity and enter the food chain through crops. The study provides a roadmap of current knowledge and points to critical gaps in understanding the long-term effects of microplastic contamination on agricultural ecosystems.

2023 Environmental Pollution 17 citations
Article Tier 2

A bibliometric analysis of emerging contaminants (ECs) (2001−2021): Evolution of hotspots and research trends

This bibliometric analysis reviewed approximately 8,000 research publications on emerging contaminants from 2001 to 2021 to track how the field has evolved. Researchers found that the focus has shifted over time from simply identifying contaminants to understanding their sources, risks, and control strategies. The study highlights that microplastics, antibiotic resistance genes, and pharmaceuticals are among the fastest-growing areas of emerging contaminant research.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging contaminants and their influence on plants: An in-depth review

This review examines how emerging contaminants including microplastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and nanomaterials accumulate in soil and affect plant health. The study found these pollutants can disrupt plant growth through various toxic mechanisms and persist in food webs, highlighting the need for effective mitigation strategies to protect crop productivity, soil health, and food security.

2025 Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Trends of global concerns on groundwater contamination and future directions

A bibliometric review of nearly 39,000 groundwater contamination studies from 1991–2024 tracks a shift in research focus from classic pollutants toward emerging contaminants including microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals, while noting most of these remain unregulated. The review is relevant to microplastic risk assessment because it identifies groundwater — a source of drinking water for billions — as a frontier where microplastic research and regulation urgently need to catch up.

2026 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Article Tier 2

Emerging Pollutants in Soil and Water: Sources, Risks, and Advances in Removal Technologies for Sustainable Management

This review provides a broad overview of emerging pollutants in soil and water, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, examining their sources, environmental persistence, and potential health effects. Researchers evaluated various removal technologies ranging from conventional methods to advanced approaches like nanofiltration and bioremediation. The study emphasizes the need for integrated management strategies that combine multiple treatment methods to effectively address these widespread contaminants.

2025 Environmental Management 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Co‐Contaminants in Soil: A Review of Combined Ecological Impact and Emerging Remediation Strategies

This review synthesizes evidence on how microplastics in soil interact with co-contaminants including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and persistent organic pollutants, finding that microplastics modify the mobility, bioavailability, and toxicity of these co-occurring pollutants in ways that current risk assessments do not fully capture.

2025 Land Degradation and Development
Article Tier 2

Bibliometric and visual analysis of heavy metal health risk assessment: development, hotspots and trends

Researchers conducted a bibliometric analysis of heavy metal health risk assessment literature from 2000 to 2022, identifying development trends and research hotspots. The study reveals growing global attention to environmental heavy metal contamination, which often co-occurs with microplastic pollution in soil and water systems.

2024 Archives of Environmental Protection 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Contaminación del suelo por microplásticos: panorama actual

This review synthesizes current knowledge on soil contamination by microplastics as an emerging pollutant, analyzing 96 peer-reviewed studies from databases including Scopus and Web of Science to characterize sources, distribution patterns, and ecological effects of microplastics in terrestrial soil matrices.

2022 PÄDI Boletín Científico de Ciencias Básicas e Ingenierías del ICBI 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Bibliometric Analysis of Microplastics in Soil Environments: Hotspots of Research and Trends of Development

This bibliometric analysis used CiteSpace to map research trends in soil microplastic contamination, identifying hotspots including microplastic effects on soil properties, organism interactions, and pollutant transport as key areas of growing scientific interest.

2023 Sustainability 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems: Moving beyond the state of the art to minimize the risk of ecological surprise

This review highlights that microplastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly soils, is significantly understudied compared to marine and freshwater environments. Researchers warn that the persistence, complex environmental interactions, and ability of microplastics to carry other contaminants could lead to unexpected ecological consequences in soil systems. The study calls for more research at larger scales and with realistic environmental conditions to better predict and prevent ecological surprises.

2021 Global Change Biology 185 citations
Article Tier 2

Review and future trends of soil microplastics research: visual analysis based on Citespace

A bibliometric analysis of soil microplastic research revealed that the field is still in early development compared to aquatic microplastic science, with growing focus on agricultural soil contamination, food security risks, and the role of sewage sludge and plastic mulch films as primary soil inputs. The authors identify key knowledge gaps and predict future research directions.

2022 Environmental Sciences Europe 18 citations