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Antarctic heavy metal pollution and remediation efforts: state of the art of research and scientific publications

  • Environmental Microbiology - Review
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Abstract

In Antarctica, human activities have been reported to be the major cause of the accumulation of heavy metal contaminants. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications on heavy metal contamination in Antarctica from year 2000 to 2020 was performed to obtain an overview of the current landscape in this line of research. A total of 106 documents were obtained from Scopus, the largest citation database. Extracted data were analysed, and VOSviewer software was used to visualise trends. The result showed an increase in publications and citations in the past 20 years indicating the rising interest on heavy metal contamination in the Antarctic region. Based on the analysis of keywords, the publications largely discuss various types of heavy metals found in the Antarctic water and sediment. The analysis on subject areas detects multiple disciplines involved, wherein the environmental science was well-represented. The top countries and authors producing the most publication in this field were from Australia, China, Brazil and Chile. Numerous efforts have been exercised to investigate heavy metal pollution and its mitigation approaches in the region in the past decades. This paper not only is relevant for scholars to understand the development status and trends in this field but also offers clear insights on the future direction of Antarctic heavy metal contamination and remediation research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Universiti Putra Malaysia, Sultan Mizan Antarctic Research Foundation (YPASM), Shibaura Institute of Technology, University Teknologi MARA, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Centro de Investigacion y Monitoreo Ambiental Antàrctico (CIMAA), Universidad de Magallanes, and Hoseo University.

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  1. Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Syazani Darham, Nur Nadhirah Zakaria & Siti Aqlima Ahmad

  2. Department of Bioscience and Engineering, College of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, 307 Fukasaku, Minuma-Ku, Saitama, 337-8570, Japan

    Azham Zulkharnain

  3. Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Department of Microbiology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Suriana Sabri

  4. Faculty of Applied Sciences, School of Biology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

    Khalilah Abdul Khalil

  5. School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Pulai Pinang, Malaysia

    Faradina Merican

  6. Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad de Magallanes, Avda. Bulnes 01855, Punta Arenas, Chile

    Claudio Gomez-Fuentes

  7. Center for Research and Antarctic Environmental Monitoring (CIMAA), Universidad de Magallanes, Avda. Bulnes 01855, Punta Arenas, Chile

    Claudio Gomez-Fuentes & Siti Aqlima Ahmad

  8. Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hoseo University, Asan-Si 31499, Chungnam, Republic of Korea

    Sooa Lim

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  1. Syazani Darham
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Darham, S., Zakaria, N.N., Zulkharnain, A. et al. Antarctic heavy metal pollution and remediation efforts: state of the art of research and scientific publications. Braz J Microbiol 54, 2011–2026 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-023-00949-9

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