SCIENTOMETRIC STUDY OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE ON THE ESTUARIES OF CEARÁ STATE

Samuel Soares Valentim,Maria Ozilea Bezerra Menezes

doi:10.32360/acmar.v49i2.6586

Abstract

Os estuários são ambientes costeiros de grande importância econômica, social e ambiental ao redor do Mundo. Muitos estudos têm sido realizados sobre dinâmica estuarina, principalmente relacionado com circulação e processo de mistura para melhor compreensão dos princípios da oceanografia física estuarina. A distribuição dos estudos realizados nos estuários do Estado do Ceará relacionado com a área de hidrodinâmica estuarina apresenta uma desigualdade e/ou um maior interesse pelo principal sistema estuarino da região, o rio Jaguaribe, o que reflete em quantidades distintas de estudos entre os três setores da costa cearense. Ao todo foram selecionados 100 estudos publicados para realizar uma distribuição dos estudos em relação o setor da costa e classificação em Literatura Cinza e Literatura Branca. Os resultados mostram que 77% das publicações são classificadas como Literatura Cinza e 23% como Literatura Branca. 52% dos estudos foram realizados em estuários localizados no litoral leste (setor 3), sendo 42 estudos no estuário do rio Jaguaribe, 22% nos estuários do litoral oeste e extremo oeste (setor 1), 21% nos estuários da região metropolitana de Fortaleza (setor 2), e, 5% são estudos realizados em mais de um estuário e/ou setor do litoral.

Highlights

Scientometry, known as quality research of scientific production, began in the 1960’s within UNESCO and Organization for Cooperation and Economic development (OCED), who created methods to evaluate scientific and technological activities (Spinak, 1998)
The majority of the definitions of estuaries were based on the conditions of estuaries in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere such definitions negligence features as hypersaline conditions during dry periods or estuaries that periodic closure of their mouths (Day, 1980)
The goal of this paper is to quantify the studies on estuaries in Ceará state with focus in physical oceanography and to classify these research per type of literature

Summary

Introduction

Scientometry, known as quality research of scientific production, began in the 1960’s within UNESCO and Organization for Cooperation and Economic development (OCED), who created methods to evaluate scientific and technological activities (Spinak, 1998). Estuaries are considered important bodies of water for environmental services, and for their value in economy (ports, fishery, and aquaculture) and social aspects (community develop ment) For this reason, to understand estuaries’ circulation and mixture processes is a fundamental step to apply the precautionary principle, in other words, to provide the necessary knowledge to analyze scenarios of environmental impacts such as transport of pollutants, hypersalinization conditions, decline of number’s species, water quality. Potter et al (2010) created definition with main characteristic of all estuaries: “An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of water that is either permanently or periodically open to the sea and which receives at least periodic discharge from a river(s), and while its salinity is typically less than that of natural sea water and varies temporally and along its length, it can become hypersaline in regions when evaporative water loss is high and freshwater and tidal inputs are negligible” The majority of the definitions of estuaries were based on the conditions of estuaries in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere such definitions negligence features as hypersaline conditions during dry periods or estuaries that periodic closure of their mouths (Day, 1980). Potter et al (2010) created definition with main characteristic of all estuaries: “An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of water that is either permanently or periodically open to the sea and which receives at least periodic discharge from a river(s), and while its salinity is typically less than that of natural sea water and varies temporally and along its length, it can become hypersaline in regions when evaporative water loss is high and freshwater and tidal inputs are negligible”

Objectives

Methods

Results