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Subfield · Environmental Science

Environmental Chemistry research

Environmental Chemistry is a subfield of Environmental Science. Science Explorer counts 263k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: scientific study of the chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur in natural places.

Research works
263k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
26k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
11
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+6%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Environmental Chemistry

What is Environmental Chemistry research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Anaerobic, Methane Oxidation, Water Quality, Eutrophication, Health Effects, Harmful Algal Blooms. Gaining share since 2011-15: Perfluoroalkyl Substances, Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds, Anaerobic, Methane Oxidation, Agricultural Sustainability. Losing share: Biogeochemical Cycling, Turfgrass, Dinoflagellates, Marine Toxins.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 29 words, with their numbers
  1. Anaerobic22k▲ 1.38×1 topic
  2. Methane Oxidation22k▲ 1.38×1 topic
  3. Water Quality15k▼ 0.70×3 topics
  4. Eutrophication14k▼ 0.72×2 topics
  5. Health Effects10k▲ 1.25×2 topics
  6. Harmful Algal Blooms9,511▼ 0.73×2 topics
  7. Cyanobacteria7,899▼ 0.77×1 topic
  8. Nutrient Control7,899▼ 0.77×1 topic
  9. Environmental Impact7,828◆ 1.15×2 topics
  10. Toxicity7,376▼ 0.85×2 topics
  11. Wastewater Treatment6,215▲ 1.30×2 topics
  12. Hyporheic Zone5,816▼ 0.67×1 topic
  13. Nutrient Cycling5,816▼ 0.67×1 topic
  14. Arsenic5,645◆ 0.95×1 topic
  15. Water5,645◆ 0.95×1 topic
  16. Solvent Selection5,234◆ 1.08×1 topic
  17. Sustainable Chemistry5,234◆ 1.08×1 topic
  18. Perfluoroalkyl Substances4,483▲ 2.1×1 topic
  19. Polyfluoroalkyl Compounds4,483▲ 2.1×1 topic
  20. Remediation3,792◆ 0.88×1 topic
  21. Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria3,792◆ 0.88×1 topic
  22. Agricultural Sustainability2,594▲ 1.32×1 topic
  23. Farm Level Assessment2,594▲ 1.32×1 topic
  24. Biodegradation1,732▼ 0.65×1 topic
  25. Surfactants1,732▼ 0.65×1 topic
  26. Dinoflagellates1,612▼ 0.59×1 topic
  27. Marine Toxins1,612▼ 0.59×1 topic
  28. Biogeochemical Cycling1,574▼ 0.56×1 topic
  29. Turfgrass1,574▼ 0.56×1 topic

Which countries lead Environmental Chemistry research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, Germany and the United States rank highest in Environmental Chemistry. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (14k and 12k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #1 all time 1.41× citation excellence · 1.49× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 12k works
  2. 2 Germany #3 all time 1.46× citation excellence · 1.56× journals · 100% breadth 10.2% top 10% · 1.4k works
  3. 3 United States #2 all time 0.60× citation excellence · 0.81× journals · 100% breadth 10.9% top 10% · 10k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.29× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 11.7% top 10% · 1k works
  5. 5 Australia #7 all time 1.44× citation excellence · 1.34× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 783 works
  6. 6 France #5 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 1.29× journals · 100% breadth 7.7% top 10% · 1.2k works
  7. 7 Netherlands #9 all time 1.53× citation excellence · 1.65× journals · 100% breadth 14.3% top 10% · 370 works
  8. 8 Switzerland #6 all time 1.27× citation excellence · 2.17× journals · 100% breadth 12.1% top 10% · 280 works
  9. 9 Canada #8 all time 0.99× citation excellence · 1.16× journals · 100% breadth 8.3% top 10% · 1.1k works
  10. 10 Sweden #11 all time 1.36× citation excellence · 1.52× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 340 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 34 countries ranked in Environmental Chemistry. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Environmental Chemistry

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 14k works
  2. 2 United States 12k works
  3. 3 India 2.7k works
  4. 4 Russia 1.8k works
  5. 5 Germany 1.6k works
  6. 6 Brazil 1.4k works
  7. 7 France 1.3k works
  8. 8 Canada 1.3k works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 1.2k works
  10. 10 Japan 1.2k works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 37.5%United States: 29.8%India: 6.9%Russia: 4.6%6 others listed: 21.1%37%largest
China14k · 37.5%United States12k · 29.8%India2,668 · 6.9%Russia1,793 · 4.6%6 others listed8,153 · 21.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Environmental Chemistry research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Environmental Chemistry on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Dalian University of Technology and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 16.9% top 10% · 1.2k works
  2. 2 Dalian University of Technology China · Dalian · #6 all time 24.1% top 10% · 111 works
  3. 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #3 all time 18.1% top 10% · 232 works
  4. 4 China University of Geosciences China · Wuhan · #8 all time 16.2% top 10% · 184 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Germany · Berlin · #2 all time 9.7% top 10% · 210 works
  6. 6 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #21 all time 18.6% top 10% · 121 works
  7. 7 Tongji University China · Shanghai · #7 all time 13.8% top 10% · 164 works
  8. 8 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #5 all time 7.6% top 10% · 402 works
  9. 9 Peking University China · Beijing · #33 all time 19.9% top 10% · 94 works
  10. 10 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #26 all time 21.1% top 10% · 95 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 89 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Environmental Chemistry.

Top 100 Environmental Chemistry institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 1.4k works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 944 works
  3. 3 University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 907 works
  4. 4 Purdue University West LafayetteUnited States 553 works
  5. 5 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 537 works
  6. 6 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 459 works
  7. 7 Michigan State UniversityUnited States 367 works
  8. 8 Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryUnited States 315 works
  9. 9 University of California, Los AngelesUnited States 273 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 263 works

Who are the leading researchers in Environmental Chemistry?

Counting only their work in Environmental Chemistry, Erik Jeppesen, Kurunthachalam Kannan and Praveen Linga have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Erik Jeppesen Denmark · #36,568 worldwide overall 60.0 of 224 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Kurunthachalam Kannan United States · #7,706 worldwide overall 45.4 of 106 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Praveen Linga Singapore · #1,134 worldwide overall 40.7 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Andrew N. Sharpley United States · #36,482 worldwide overall 45.4 of 135 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Antonia M. Calafat United States · #5,483 worldwide overall 40.0 of 93 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Ian T. Cousins Sweden · #10,689 worldwide overall 33.1 of 62 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 6 Fangjie J. Zhao China · #12,151 worldwide overall 34.5 of 76 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Boqiang Qin China · #17,386 worldwide overall 37.1 of 104 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté Netherlands · #14,502 worldwide overall 37.3 of 110 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Christopher P. Higgins United States · #6,148 worldwide overall 32.1 of 59 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Environmental Chemistry alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 799,100 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Environmental Chemistry researchers

What are the most cited papers in Environmental Chemistry?

The most cited paper in Environmental Chemistry is "XDS" (Wolfgang Kabsch, 2010), with 17,173 citations. Next come "Model Evaluation Guidelines for Systematic Quantification of Accuracy in Watershed Simulations" (13,590) and "Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present" (10,656).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 XDS Wolfgang Kabsch · Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography Open access 21 Jan 2010 17,173
2 Model Evaluation Guidelines for Systematic Quantification of Accuracy in Watershed Simulations Daniel N. Moriasi, Jeffery G. Arnold, Mike W. Van Liew et al. · Transactions of the ASABE 2007 13,590
3 Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present James C. Zachos, Mark Pagani, Lisa C. Sloan et al. · Science 27 Apr 2001 10,656
4 LARGE AREA HYDROLOGIC MODELING AND ASSESSMENT PART I: MODEL DEVELOPMENT 1 J. G. Arnold, Raghavan Srinivasan, R. S. Muttiah et al. · JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association Feb 1998 8,054
5 Generic Assignments, Strain Histories and Properties of Pure Cultures of Cyanobacteria Rosmarie Rippka, Roger Y. Stanier, Josette Deruelles et al. · Microbiology Mar 1979 7,814
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Environmental Chemistry research done?

The largest centres of Environmental Chemistry research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Berkeley (United States), Nanjing (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Hiram, Richland and Lisle.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 3.5k works
  2. 2 BerkeleyUnited States 1.2k works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 970 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 712 works
  5. 5 GuangzhouChina 702 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 702 works
  7. 7 QingdaoChina 690 works
  8. 8 Washington D.C.United States 674 works
  9. 9 ShanghaiChina 598 works
  10. 10 West LafayetteUnited States 557 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. HiramUS · 32.8 works59×
  2. RichlandUS · 72.2 works47×
  3. LisleUS · 23.8 works42×
  4. BorokRU · 32.2 works28×
  5. BerkeleyUS · 1,222.5 works19×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Environmental Chemistry than the world average.

See Environmental Chemistry on the map

Environmental Chemistry research by country

The best places for Environmental Chemistry research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Environmental Chemistry?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian University of Technology and China University of Geosciences score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.58%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Dalian University of…University of Chines…China University of …Tongji University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 76.1#3 (#3)17.2%3.5×263 +2.1%
2Dalian University of TechnologyChina 74.6#2 (#6)24.0%2.8×124 +15.4%
3China University of GeosciencesChina 69.4#4 (#8)16.2%10.1×212 +42.7%
4Tongji UniversityChina 66.1#7 (#7)13.9%2.7×192 +53.6%
5Zhejiang UniversityChina 56.4#6 (#21)17.8%1.1×135 +24.0%
6ETH ZurichSwitzerland 56.2- (#4)16.2%2.1×68 -31.9%
7Tsinghua UniversityChina 53.8#10 (#26)20.6%1.0×110 +43.5%
8Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 53.8#33 (#16)16.3%5.5×92 -3.4%
9Beijing Normal UniversityChina 53.2#12 (#28)17.2%3.4×123 +39.4%
10China University of Geosciences (Beijing)China 51.9#13 (#36)16.4%10.4×140 +41.8%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Environmental Chemistry, country by country

Is Environmental Chemistry research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 6% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis and Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Environmental Chemistry as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.21% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Environmental Chemistry0.21% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Environmental Chemistry over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Environmental Chemistry10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research+103%
  2. Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis+59%
  3. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering+29%
  4. Environmental Chemistry and Analysis+20%
  5. Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics+11%
  6. Mine drainage and remediation techniques+9%
  7. Turfgrass Adaptation and Management-5%
  8. Soil and Water Nutrient Dynamics-11%
  9. Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena-11%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Environmental Chemistry include?

Methane Hydrates and Rel…70kMethane Hydrates and Related Phenomena: 70k fractional worksAquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics: 41k fractional worksSoil and Water Nutrient Dynamics: 34k fractional worksChemistry and Chemical Engineering: 24k fractional worksArsenic contamination and mitigation: 21k fractional worksMine drainage and remedi…18kMine drainage and remediation techniques: 18k fractional worksEnvironmental Chemistry and Analysis: 13k fractional worksTurfgrass Adaptation and Management: 12k fractional worksMarine Toxins and Detection Methods: 12k fractional worksPer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research: 10k fractional worksSustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis: 8,214 fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

Share who leads Environmental Chemistry

Who leads Environmental Chemistry, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Environmental Chemistry, for a post or a slide.

Download the card

1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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