Abstract
This paper aims to evaluate the knowledge landscape of the phytoremediation of heavy metals (HMs) by constructing a series of scientific maps and exploring the research hotspots and trends of this field. This study presents a review of 6873 documents published about phytoremediation of HMs in the international context from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) (1989–2018). Two different processing software applications were used, CiteSpace and Bibliometrix. This research field is characterized by high interdisciplinarity and a rapid increase in the subject categories of engineering applications. The basic supporting categories mainly included “Environmental Sciences & Ecology”, “Plant Sciences”, and “Agriculture”. In addition, there has been a trend in recent years to focus on categories such as “Engineering, Multidisciplinary”, “Engineering, Chemical”, and “Green & Sustainable Science & Technology”. “Soil”, “hyperaccumulator”, “enrichment mechanism/process”, and “enhance technology” were found to be the main research hotspots. “Wastewater”, “field crops”, “genetically engineered microbes/plants”, and “agromining” may be the main research trends. Bibliometric and scientometric analysis are useful methods to qualitatively and quantitatively measure research hotspots and trends in phytoremediation of HM, and can be widely used to help new researchers to review the available research in a certain research field.
Highlights
Rapid urbanization and industrial development and the intensification of agriculture support the local and national economy and instigate many environmental pollution problems [1,2].Heavy metal (HM) pollution mainly comes from the mining and smelting of metals, from electroplating, and from other industrial processes [3,4]
A total of 6873 records related to phytoremediation of HMs were identified from 1945 to 2018, and they were classified into 12 document types
The inter-annual variation in publications indicated that research on the phytoremediation of HMs was first published in 1945, but that consistent publication has been gradually formed since 1989
Summary
Rapid urbanization and industrial development and the intensification of agriculture support the local and national economy and instigate many environmental pollution problems [1,2]. Heavy metal (HM) pollution mainly comes from the mining and smelting of metals, from electroplating, and from other industrial processes [3,4]. The excessive application of fertilizers and pesticides and irrigation with sewage in modern agriculture leads to HM pollution in farmland and water [5,6]. Cost-effective and efficient remediation technology for HM pollution has been receiving worldwide attention [8,9]. Phytoremediation, which is a cheap and sustainable pollution remediation technology, originated in the early part of the 20th century and was recognized as a competitive solution for HM contamination [10,11]
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