Investigating the environmental dynamics of emerging pollutants in response to global climate change: Insights from bibliometrics-based visualization analysis

The environmental dynamics of emerging pollutants were profoundly influenced by global climate change, attracting widespread attention to this complex interaction. However, single studies or reviews were insufficient to grasp, clarify, and predict the evolutionary characteristics and coupling patterns of emerging pollutants under global climate change. Here, 2389 research articles collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database for the period 2000-2023 were analyzed using systematic bibliometric visual analysis software. Results suggested a rapid growth trend in this field study, particularly accelerating after 2015. The United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Spain led in the volume of publications, forming a multidisciplinary research network centered on environmental science. Wastewater treatment, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals were identified as current research hotspots, with climate change emerging as the most prominent keyword. Research focus gradually shifted from single pollutants to multi-pollutant composite effects, from local issues to global-scale assessments, and from phenomenon description to mechanism analysis and risk evaluation. It is concluded that climate change is reshaping the environmental behaviors and ecological risks of emerging pollutants, and multidisciplinary, multi-scale research methods are urgent need. Future research is suggested to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, integrate climate and pollutant migration models, and investigate impacts of extreme climate events in depth.