Microplastics and nanoplastics in global food webs: A bibliometric analysis (2009–2019)

Syie Luing Wong; Bemgba Bevan Nyakuma; Keng Yinn Wong; Chew Tin Lee; Ting Hun Lee; Chia Hau Lee

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111432

Microplastics and nanoplastics in global food webs: A bibliometric analysis (2009–2019)

Syie Luing Wong
, Bemgba Bevan Nyakuma
, Keng Yinn Wong (Corresponding author)
, Chew Tin Lee
, Ting Hun Lee
, Chia Hau Lee

Onderzoeksoutput: Bijdrage aan tijdschrift › Tijdschriftartikel › Academic › peer review

97 Citaten (Scopus)

Samenvatting

This paper presents the research landscape on microplastics and nanoplastics (M/NPs) in global food webs based on a bibliometric analysis of 330 publications published in 2009–2019 extracted from Web of Science. The publications increased tremendously since 2013. Marine Pollution Bulletin is one of the top productive journals for this topic. The publication landscape related to M/NPs in global food webs, as interdisciplinary research, is highly dependent on the funding availability. The high productivities of England, China, USA and European countries are attributed to the funding from the agencies at regional or national levels. Keyword analysis reveals the shift of research hotspots from investigations on M/NPs absorbed by various organisms in the ecosystems to studies on the trophic transfer of M/NPs and sorbed contaminants in the food webs and their associated adverse impacts. Funding agencies play important roles in leading the future development of this topic.

Originele taal-2	Engels
Artikelnummer	111432
Aantal pagina's	15
Tijdschrift	Marine Pollution Bulletin
Volume	158
DOI's	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111432
Status	Gepubliceerd - sep. 2020
Extern gepubliceerd	Ja

Bibliografische nota

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Financiering

Funding agencies played important roles in the development of research on M/NPs in global food webs, which is interdisciplinary in nature. The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the European Union served as the main funding organizations in this subject field, which led to the high productivities of England, China, USA, and European countries. The University of Exeter (England), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands), and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres are identified as the prolific institutions with significant contributions to the research on M/NPs in global food webs. At the individual level, Galloway, Tamara S., Koelmans, Albert A., and Cole, Matthew are the top prolific researchers in this subject field. The high degree of co-authorship relationships is also observed at the country level. In comparison, the research collaboration among productive institutions and individuals is less significant. In total, 80 (24.2%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment ( Kosore et al., 2018 ) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya . In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) ( Auta et al., 2017 ) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) ( Courtene-Jones et al., 2017 ). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues. The quantification and characterization of M/NPs are more inclined towards the environmental science discipline. However, investigations on the effects of M/NPs to the organisms and the propagation of such pollutants in the global food webs require expertise from different research disciplines ( Henderson and Green, 2020 ). The development of interdisciplinary research is more often challenging than studies associated with a single discipline, as the former involves researchers/organizations from different backgrounds, cultures and administrative styles. These differences could affect the effectiveness of intellectual exchanges among the experts, which are essential to developing a relatively new, risky yet rewarding research program to address the identified issues ( Lyall et al., 2013 ). In addition to providing financial support, funding agencies also influence the directions and dynamics of interdisciplinary research in different ways. For example, such agencies perform proposals selection, research progress monitoring, promoting the stakeholders' engagement, along with disseminating results and sharing knowledge to the public. Huang et al. (2016) highlighted the different strategies used by the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA) and National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC, China) in funding the Big Data research as an emerging interdisciplinary research subject. The findings revealed that NSF-funded proposals are more inclined towards engineering disciplines with specialized applications, while NSFC-funded projects are interdisciplinary in nature. Therefore, it is worthy to examine the funding agencies available that contributed to the development of research on MNPs in global food webs. According to the data extracted from WoS, the research on M/NPs in the global food webs is supported by 443 funding agencies, although only 49 (11.1% of the funding) resulted in the publication of two or more papers. The information of all the funding agencies is provided in Supplementary File 1 . As shown in Table 6 , funding agencies at the national level (China, USA, UK) or regional level (Europe) are the predominant supporters of research on M/NPs in global food webs. The funding offered by the NNSF of China resulted in the highest number of publications. The foundation, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Key Research and Development Program of China, support various research projects in China, which led to the publication of 38 documents within 2015–2019. The impacts of Chinese funding agencies on the rapid development of research devoted to environmental issues, for example, management of municipal solid waste incineration ashes, is also observed by Wong et al. (2020) . The European Union (EU) is another major sponsor of research on the M/NPs in global food webs in the EU region. Similarly, national funding supports are also provided in the USA, UK and Portugal. In total, 80 (24.2%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment (Kosore et al., 2018) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya. In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) (Auta et al., 2017) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) (Courtene-Jones et al., 2017). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues.

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@article{d4c1e5ec17324b11b0f329e0e3cfa3a0,

title = "Microplastics and nanoplastics in global food webs: A bibliometric analysis (2009–2019)",

abstract = "This paper presents the research landscape on microplastics and nanoplastics (M/NPs) in global food webs based on a bibliometric analysis of 330 publications published in 2009–2019 extracted from Web of Science. The publications increased tremendously since 2013. Marine Pollution Bulletin is one of the top productive journals for this topic. The publication landscape related to M/NPs in global food webs, as interdisciplinary research, is highly dependent on the funding availability. The high productivities of England, China, USA and European countries are attributed to the funding from the agencies at regional or national levels. Keyword analysis reveals the shift of research hotspots from investigations on M/NPs absorbed by various organisms in the ecosystems to studies on the trophic transfer of M/NPs and sorbed contaminants in the food webs and their associated adverse impacts. Funding agencies play important roles in leading the future development of this topic.",

keywords = "Ecological Corona, Marine ecosystem, Persistent organic pollutants, Terrestrial ecosystem, Trophic transfer, Europe, England, Food Chain, Bibliometrics, China, Ecosystem, Microplastics, Plastics",

author = "Wong, \{Syie Luing\} and Nyakuma, \{Bemgba Bevan\} and Wong, \{Keng Yinn\} and Lee, \{Chew Tin\} and Lee, \{Ting Hun\} and Lee, \{Chia Hau\}",

note = "Funding Information: Funding agencies played important roles in the development of research on M/NPs in global food webs, which is interdisciplinary in nature. The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the European Union served as the main funding organizations in this subject field, which led to the high productivities of England, China, USA, and European countries. The University of Exeter (England), Wageningen University \& Research (Netherlands), and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres are identified as the prolific institutions with significant contributions to the research on M/NPs in global food webs. At the individual level, Galloway, Tamara S., Koelmans, Albert A., and Cole, Matthew are the top prolific researchers in this subject field. The high degree of co-authorship relationships is also observed at the country level. In comparison, the research collaboration among productive institutions and individuals is less significant. Funding Information: In total, 80 (24.2\%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment ( Kosore et al., 2018 ) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya . In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) ( Auta et al., 2017 ) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) ( Courtene-Jones et al., 2017 ). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues. Funding Information: The quantification and characterization of M/NPs are more inclined towards the environmental science discipline. However, investigations on the effects of M/NPs to the organisms and the propagation of such pollutants in the global food webs require expertise from different research disciplines ( Henderson and Green, 2020 ). The development of interdisciplinary research is more often challenging than studies associated with a single discipline, as the former involves researchers/organizations from different backgrounds, cultures and administrative styles. These differences could affect the effectiveness of intellectual exchanges among the experts, which are essential to developing a relatively new, risky yet rewarding research program to address the identified issues ( Lyall et al., 2013 ). In addition to providing financial support, funding agencies also influence the directions and dynamics of interdisciplinary research in different ways. For example, such agencies perform proposals selection, research progress monitoring, promoting the stakeholders' engagement, along with disseminating results and sharing knowledge to the public. Huang et al. (2016) highlighted the different strategies used by the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA) and National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC, China) in funding the Big Data research as an emerging interdisciplinary research subject. The findings revealed that NSF-funded proposals are more inclined towards engineering disciplines with specialized applications, while NSFC-funded projects are interdisciplinary in nature. Therefore, it is worthy to examine the funding agencies available that contributed to the development of research on MNPs in global food webs. Funding Information: According to the data extracted from WoS, the research on M/NPs in the global food webs is supported by 443 funding agencies, although only 49 (11.1\% of the funding) resulted in the publication of two or more papers. The information of all the funding agencies is provided in Supplementary File 1 . As shown in Table 6 , funding agencies at the national level (China, USA, UK) or regional level (Europe) are the predominant supporters of research on M/NPs in global food webs. The funding offered by the NNSF of China resulted in the highest number of publications. The foundation, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Key Research and Development Program of China, support various research projects in China, which led to the publication of 38 documents within 2015–2019. The impacts of Chinese funding agencies on the rapid development of research devoted to environmental issues, for example, management of municipal solid waste incineration ashes, is also observed by Wong et al. (2020) . The European Union (EU) is another major sponsor of research on the M/NPs in global food webs in the EU region. Similarly, national funding supports are also provided in the USA, UK and Portugal. Funding Information: In total, 80 (24.2\%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment (Kosore et al., 2018) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya. In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) (Auta et al., 2017) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) (Courtene-Jones et al., 2017). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues. ",

year = "2020",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111432",

language = "English",

volume = "158",

journal = "Marine Pollution Bulletin",

issn = "0025-326X",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Microplastics and nanoplastics in global food webs

T2 - A bibliometric analysis (2009–2019)

AU - Wong, Syie Luing

AU - Nyakuma, Bemgba Bevan

AU - Wong, Keng Yinn

AU - Lee, Chew Tin

AU - Lee, Ting Hun

AU - Lee, Chia Hau

N1 - Funding Information: Funding agencies played important roles in the development of research on M/NPs in global food webs, which is interdisciplinary in nature. The National Natural Science Foundation of China and the European Union served as the main funding organizations in this subject field, which led to the high productivities of England, China, USA, and European countries. The University of Exeter (England), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands), and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres are identified as the prolific institutions with significant contributions to the research on M/NPs in global food webs. At the individual level, Galloway, Tamara S., Koelmans, Albert A., and Cole, Matthew are the top prolific researchers in this subject field. The high degree of co-authorship relationships is also observed at the country level. In comparison, the research collaboration among productive institutions and individuals is less significant. Funding Information: In total, 80 (24.2%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment ( Kosore et al., 2018 ) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya . In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) ( Auta et al., 2017 ) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) ( Courtene-Jones et al., 2017 ). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues. Funding Information: The quantification and characterization of M/NPs are more inclined towards the environmental science discipline. However, investigations on the effects of M/NPs to the organisms and the propagation of such pollutants in the global food webs require expertise from different research disciplines ( Henderson and Green, 2020 ). The development of interdisciplinary research is more often challenging than studies associated with a single discipline, as the former involves researchers/organizations from different backgrounds, cultures and administrative styles. These differences could affect the effectiveness of intellectual exchanges among the experts, which are essential to developing a relatively new, risky yet rewarding research program to address the identified issues ( Lyall et al., 2013 ). In addition to providing financial support, funding agencies also influence the directions and dynamics of interdisciplinary research in different ways. For example, such agencies perform proposals selection, research progress monitoring, promoting the stakeholders' engagement, along with disseminating results and sharing knowledge to the public. Huang et al. (2016) highlighted the different strategies used by the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA) and National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC, China) in funding the Big Data research as an emerging interdisciplinary research subject. The findings revealed that NSF-funded proposals are more inclined towards engineering disciplines with specialized applications, while NSFC-funded projects are interdisciplinary in nature. Therefore, it is worthy to examine the funding agencies available that contributed to the development of research on MNPs in global food webs. Funding Information: According to the data extracted from WoS, the research on M/NPs in the global food webs is supported by 443 funding agencies, although only 49 (11.1% of the funding) resulted in the publication of two or more papers. The information of all the funding agencies is provided in Supplementary File 1 . As shown in Table 6 , funding agencies at the national level (China, USA, UK) or regional level (Europe) are the predominant supporters of research on M/NPs in global food webs. The funding offered by the NNSF of China resulted in the highest number of publications. The foundation, together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Key Research and Development Program of China, support various research projects in China, which led to the publication of 38 documents within 2015–2019. The impacts of Chinese funding agencies on the rapid development of research devoted to environmental issues, for example, management of municipal solid waste incineration ashes, is also observed by Wong et al. (2020) . The European Union (EU) is another major sponsor of research on the M/NPs in global food webs in the EU region. Similarly, national funding supports are also provided in the USA, UK and Portugal. Funding Information: In total, 80 (24.2%) out of 330 publications analysed in this study lacked funding. Some principal investigators relied on ministries and institutions (or equivalent organizations) as the sole support for research funding. For example, the work of Horn et al. (2019) on the presence of MPs in Pacific mole crabs was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) award, which was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Research Agency of Slovenia supported the work by Kokalj et al. (2018) on MP hazards to Daphnia magna and Artemia franciscana. The first evidence on the presence of MPs in Kenya's marine environment (Kosore et al., 2018) was financially supported by the affiliated research institute, which was in turn funded by the government of Kenya. In the absence of national funds, researchers resorted to university funding for scientific studies. Some examples include the University of Malaya (Malaysia) (Auta et al., 2017) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland) (Courtene-Jones et al., 2017). Due to the absence of funding agencies to influence and coordinate activities, research in this subject field is not only exploratory in nature but also lack long-term developments and sustainable capacity. The use of such publications is limited to disseminating knowledge to the international scientific community, and do not translate into policies and actions in the affiliated author countries. The lack of sustainable research collaborations among the abovementioned researchers with other prolific researchers in this subject topic could also hinder their contributions towards global efforts in combating M/NP pollution issues.

PY - 2020/9

Y1 - 2020/9

N2 - This paper presents the research landscape on microplastics and nanoplastics (M/NPs) in global food webs based on a bibliometric analysis of 330 publications published in 2009–2019 extracted from Web of Science. The publications increased tremendously since 2013. Marine Pollution Bulletin is one of the top productive journals for this topic. The publication landscape related to M/NPs in global food webs, as interdisciplinary research, is highly dependent on the funding availability. The high productivities of England, China, USA and European countries are attributed to the funding from the agencies at regional or national levels. Keyword analysis reveals the shift of research hotspots from investigations on M/NPs absorbed by various organisms in the ecosystems to studies on the trophic transfer of M/NPs and sorbed contaminants in the food webs and their associated adverse impacts. Funding agencies play important roles in leading the future development of this topic.

AB - This paper presents the research landscape on microplastics and nanoplastics (M/NPs) in global food webs based on a bibliometric analysis of 330 publications published in 2009–2019 extracted from Web of Science. The publications increased tremendously since 2013. Marine Pollution Bulletin is one of the top productive journals for this topic. The publication landscape related to M/NPs in global food webs, as interdisciplinary research, is highly dependent on the funding availability. The high productivities of England, China, USA and European countries are attributed to the funding from the agencies at regional or national levels. Keyword analysis reveals the shift of research hotspots from investigations on M/NPs absorbed by various organisms in the ecosystems to studies on the trophic transfer of M/NPs and sorbed contaminants in the food webs and their associated adverse impacts. Funding agencies play important roles in leading the future development of this topic.

KW - Ecological Corona

KW - Marine ecosystem

KW - Persistent organic pollutants

KW - Terrestrial ecosystem

KW - Trophic transfer

KW - Europe

KW - England

KW - Food Chain

KW - Bibliometrics

KW - China

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Microplastics

KW - Plastics

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85087486123

U2 - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111432

DO - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111432

M3 - Article

C2 - 32753215

AN - SCOPUS:85087486123

SN - 0025-326X

VL - 158

JO - Marine Pollution Bulletin

JF - Marine Pollution Bulletin

M1 - 111432

ER -

Microplastics and nanoplastics in global food webs: A bibliometric analysis (2009–2019)

Samenvatting

Bibliografische nota

Financiering

Duurzame ontwikkelingsdoelstellingen van de VN

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