Poluição dos oceanos por plástico: histórico, cienciometria e principais lacunas no conhecimento

Abstract

Since its creation in the 20th century, plastic production and consumption has increased continuously. In 2016, global plastic production was estimated in 335 million tons and, according to current trends, it must reach 40 billion tons by the end of 2050. Features as flexibility, resistance, and relatively low manufacture cost led populations into excessive consumption. These same features combined with irregular discard has turned plastic into a global threat to ecosystems. Nowadays, nearly 80% of waste that reaches the oceans is plastic waste. Due to its importance and relevance, in the last decade, scientific knowledge about plastic pollution has grown and attracted the attention of scientific community and the global population. It is known that all types of marine creatures, from the largest to microscopic organisms, can interact with plastic waste, because these materials have already been found in all marine areas, from the coast to remote islands. There is a need to comprehend the ocean plastic pollution state of art, how much the knowledge on this theme has advanced and which are its gaps. In this context, scientometric, an innovative tool focused on research metrics, may clarify advances in scientific knowledge, help researchers to assess knowledge trends through time, and to identify paths to mitigate plastic pollution problems. Literature systematic review can increase openness to better scientific information, creating a robust and accessible base to decision makers. Therefore, we used a scientometric database and a scientific literature systematic review to evaluate research on ocean plastic pollution. We collected 974 articles from Web of Science database from 2,911 authors published in 216 journals. USA, UK, Brazil and Australia are the countries with more papers published. We also discuss factors that may influence scientific interest, law creation, and public interest in each country about the theme. In addition, we sought to understand which sub-themes, regions, ecosystems and taxa are less studied, resulting in knowledge gaps. Overall, few studies on plastic pollution have been conducted in oceanic areas, in deep environments or of great biological importance such as coral reefs and mangroves. Likewise, few studies have attempted to understand the environmental impacts of species rafting on plastic waste and what is the relationship between chemicals acquired from the environment or added in plastic during the manufacturing process to environmental or wildlife contamination. Our results indicate that the use of this approach (scientometric combined with literature systematic review) has shown to be useful for assessing and quantifying research efforts on ocean plastic pollution. This study gives opportunities to new research rise from knowledge gaps.