Plastic pollution is one of the most impactful human interferences in our planet. Fragmentation of plastic leads to nano- and microplastics (NP/MP) formation, which accumulate in agricultural lands, representing an increasing risk for crop production and food safety. It has been shown that MP promote damage in plant tissues by several direct and indirect ways, and that NP can enter the tissues/cells and accumulate in edible organs. Investigation of the phytotoxic effects of NP/MP in plants started only in 2016, with most of the studies performed with crops. Since contradictory results are often observed, it is important to review the literature in order to identify robust effects and their possible mechanisms. In this review, we discuss the potential of NP/MP in damaging crop species, with focus on the physiological changes described in the literature. We also performed scientometrics analyses on research papers in this field during 2016–2021, to reveal the research situation of phytotoxic effects of plastic pollution in crops. Our review is as a starting point to help identify gaps and future directions in this important, emerging field.

As typical pollutants, petroleum hydrocarbons that are widely present in various environmental media such as soil, water, sediments, and air, seriously endanger living organisms and human health. In the meantime, as a green environmental technology that integrates pollutant removal and resource recovery, bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have been extensively applied to the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons from the environment. This review introduces working principles of BESs, following which it discusses the different reactor structures, application progresses, and key optimization factors when treating water, sewage sludges, sediments, and soil. Furthermore, bibliometrics was first used in this field to analyze the evolution of knowledge structure and forecast future hot topics. The research focus has shifted from the early generation of bioelectric energy to exploring mechanisms of soil remediation and microbial metabolisms, which will be closely integrated in the future. Finally, the future prospects of this field are proposed. This review focuses on the research status of bioelectrochemical degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and provides a scientific reference for subsequent research.

This paper aims to determine the worldwide research trends on searching queries of “oil spill* and risk assessment*” and “net environmental benefit analysis” and its most productive authors and journals. A bibliometric approach was performed to analyze publications including highly cited papers and only papers that were published in the Dimensions database from 2000 to 2022, April was selected. The necessary data were extracted from the Dimensions database and processed using visualization and mapping software such as VOSviewer 1.6.17 and Tableau Public 2021.1. The findings identified significant study fields, co-cited authors, country contributions, productive journals, as well as the most cited authors' articles. This study contributes significantly to the relevant studies as one of the few that utilizes bibliometric analysis as a network visualization and mapping technique for the analysis of one of the primary oil spill response decision-making tools and risk assessment sciences. The findings of this study can assist the researcher perform their research more effectively by providing insight into journal selection, contributing authors, research trends, countries, and keywords. Further research is recommended in light of longer period data contained in oil spill response strategies, oil spill modeling, or oil spill risk subjects.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The development of various type of wastewater treatment technologies provides significant supports for environmental protection. Biofiltration, an attached growth system, shows remarkable performance in treating different types of wastewater worldwide. Differing from the existing comprehensive reviews published thus far, this review article focuses on the current prospects and future research trends of biofiltration in wastewater treatment through bibliometric analysis. The objective of the study is to analyze the applications of biofiltration in wastewater treatment in terms of the annual publications trend, most productive journals, leading authors, countries and affiliations, keywords, and the type of wastewater treated. RECENT FINDINGS: The findings clearly showed that there is an increasing trend in the annual publications of biofiltration in wastewater treatment in the period from 1969 to 2020. The analysis revealed that Water Research, Mr. Rocher, V (Rocher, Vincent), and China is the leading journal, author, and country in terms of total publications. Through the co-occurrence analysis of the author keywords, keyword such as “biofilter” was identified as the most frequently used author keywords with 213 occurrences and 178 links to other author keywords. Besides that, the findings also show that there are still lacking of studies related on the treatment of “refinery wastewater,” “pharmaceutical wastewater,” “coal gasification wastewater,” and “brewery wastewater” by using biofiltration system. Overall, the findings of this bibliometric analysis can be helpful information for industry practitioners and researchers that lead on water pollution control technologies.

Anthropogenic pollution of marine ecosystems caused by beach debris has become a serious environmental concern in the last few decades. Regarding the raising production of beach debris, the present work aimed to summarize the quantity and quality of beach debris reported from different beach areas of the world. Also, a bibliometric analysis was used to analyze research trends and upgrade knowledge in this research area. Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), the eligible papers reviewed regarding beach debris abundance along with their composition from 2010, which were extracted from the Scopus database. The results of the study showed that plastic items represented the dominant material (61.25%), followed by food (5.88%), wood (5.78%), metals (5.2%), and glass (5%). Further, the beaches studied were classified into three degrees, including highly polluted (31.5 items/m²), moderate polluted (3.47 items/m²), and low polluted (0.37 items/m²), based on the average abundance of debris.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to the global marine environment. Various responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased marine pollution. Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected marine pollution research? This work comprehensively reviewed marine pollution publications in the Web of Science database before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that the COVID-19 outbreak has influenced the marine pollution research by: (i) increasing the number of publications; (ii) reshaping different countries' roles in marine pollution research; (iii) altering the hotspots of marine pollution research. The ranking of countries with high productivity in the marine pollution research field changed, and developed economies are the dominant players both before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in this field. Other high-productivity countries, with the exception of China, have higher international cooperation rates in marine pollution research than those before the pandemic. Microplastic pollution has been the biggest challenge of marine pollution and has been aexplored in greater depth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the mining results of marine pollution publications show the mitigation of plastic pollution in the marine environment remains the main content requires future research. Finally, this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions for the reference of researchers and practitioners to improve the global ability to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic to the marine environment.

Recreational boating is a leisure and sports activity that has aroused growing interest among users, tourists, and the general public. However, in the last decade, a problem has arisen concerning the abandonment of recreational boats. It is a problem that has become even more acute in times of economic recession. It is, therefore, necessary to find an urgent solution in order to reduce potential environmental risks. This work aims to analyze the state of the question through bibliometrics to know which topics are trending and contrast these findings with a Delphi analysis. The main results focus on the need for greater agility in the court adjudication process and the need for a specific legal framework for the scrapping of recreational craft. In conclusion, it is vital to integrate the circular economy into shipbuilding and scrapping processes to ensure the sustainability of the sector and the environment.

Microplastic pollution in marine environment has been a growing public concern in recent years. This article analyzed the scientific literatures related to marine microplastics through a combination of social network analysis and bibliometrics. Researches related to microplastics have grown rapidly since 2011, with approximately two-thirds of the total number of articles published in the last three years. Researchers in United States and Europe have provided tremendous support, however, the efforts and progress of Chinese researchers cannot be ignored. Moreover, the international cooperation is getting closer, and related strategies are launched continuously. The results showed that Marine Pollution Bulletin is the most active journal. Through keyword analysis, we understand the development history and current hotspots of the whole microplastics researches, including ecological risks, interrelationship between microplastics and other pollutants, and detection methodology. Finally, some suggestions and perspectives for future microplastics research are provided.

To attain ecological sustainability and transition to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM), effective technological innovation (TI) and solid waste management (SWM), as likely impending resources, are essential components. From 2000 through 2021, a detailed map of SSCMs in the context of TI and systematic history will be created, highlighting the most significant research themes and trends, primary features, development, and possibly relevant areas for future study. Due to utilizing bibliometric analysis, text mining, and content analytics methodologies, the following concerns were addressed: (1) How has SSCM research progressed over time in the TI domain? (2) Which SSCM research areas and trends receive the most attention in the TI domain? Additionally, (3) what are the research directions for SSCM in the context of TI? As a result, bibliometric networks were developed and examined using 983 journal articles from the Scopus database to highlight the substantial body of literature. As a result, SSCM has been divided into five crucial study themes: (i) transition to TI, (ii) SSCM in closed-loop supply chains, (iii) municipal solid waste management (MSWM), (iv) environmental consequences and life-cycle evaluation, and (v) policymakers and practitioners in SSCM can use the SSCM research landscape and its primary highlight patterns to guide and add in the TI. Considering SSCM research as a way to reduce waste, future study directions are also suggested.

An exponentially growing global population has led to an increase in nutrient pollution in different aqueous bodies. Although different processes have successfully removed nutrients from wastewater on a large scale, a limited number of studies have been reported on efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and future potential of physical, chemical, and biological nutrient recovery methods to overcome the depletion of natural resources. Therefore, researchers need to understand current research trends by applying different approaches to investigate higher efficient nutrient recovery technologies. In this article, the research patterns and in-depth review of various nutrient recovery processes have been circumscribed with the application of bibliometric and attractive index (AAI) vs. activity index (AI) analysis. The performance, advantages, limitations, and future prospects of different nutrient recovery methods have also been addressed. More than 70% of study publications were published in the last decade in chemical and biological processes, which might be related to more rigorous effluent quality rules and increasing water pollution. The future prediction in the field of nutrient recovery has been predicted using S-curve analysis, and it was found that the number of publications in the saturated state in chemical methods was highest. However, the growth rate of the biological-based nutrient recovery methods is greater, which may be because of their huge research scope, cost-effectiveness, and easy operation methods. This study can assist researchers in understanding the current research scenario in nutrient recovery techniques and provide the research scope in nutrient recovery from wastewater in the future.