Abstract
Atrazine (ATZ) is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. A scientometric study was conducted to analyze the evolution of research on ATZ. The study also looked at the use of microalgae and cyanobacteria as biological models for toxicity tests during the period from 1959 to 2019, in the category of toxicology of Web of Science. The results show an increase in the number of scientific publications mainly in the USA, Canada, and China. The majority of papers was published in journals with high impact factors, demonstrating the relevance of such studies. About 83% of the studies aimed to evaluate the effect of ATZ on non-target organisms. From those, 7.5% included microalgae and cyanobacteria. The majority of them worked with chlorophyceae to perform toxicity bioassays of ATZ and analyze its sublethal effects. The gaps identified by this analysis included a small number of collaborations between research groups from different countries; the number of studies with terrestrial organisms, which are larger in comparison to aquatic organisms; and the fact that none of the studies with ATZ and microalgae was performed in the field. These findings can point out to researchers and funding agencies the gaps in knowledge on the toxic effects of ATZ and guide the development of new research projects as well as environmental policies.
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Financial support was provided by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Programa de Apoio à Pós-Graduação (PROAP) fellowship, Brazil, and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico CNPq (Brazil). This research was supported in part by the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden, through a grant to JZ (IFS I-2-A/5350-2) co-financed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). JZ is a productivity research fellow from CNPq (PQ 309605/2017-2).
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MSC and FGB conceived and designed the study. MSC conducted the literature search. MSC and FGB were involved in the analysis and interpretation of data. MSC and FGB drafted the manuscript. The study was supervised by FGB, PSG, CMDGM, and JZ. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Castro, M.S., Barbosa, F.G., Guimarães, P.S. et al. A scientometric analysis of ecotoxicological studies with the herbicide atrazine and microalgae and cyanobacteria as test organisms. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 25196–25206 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12213-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12213-w