Abstract: With the core set of Web of Science and CNKI database as data source, we studied the status and emerging trends of freshwater microplastics research by using CiteSpace to examine the keywords cooccurrence, keywords clustering, highlight words, author cooperation and institutional cooperation based on literatures of microplastics in freshwater environment published from January 1, 2007 to July 24, 2021. The number of published papers in this regard has been on the rise over the past two years, mainly in China, the US, and Germany, attracting increasing concern. In terms of keywords cooccurrence and clustering, we found that the research directions both in China and abroad are similar in general; the distribution of microplastics in freshwater environment, the distribution of microplastics in sediments and the pollution characteristics, as well as the impact of microplastics on freshwater environment are of widespread concern. Analysis of keywords and highlight words reveals that the ecological risk of microplastics in freshwater environment, such as the impact on freshwater organisms is an emerging trend. In addition, nanoplastics is also a key research direction in the future.

Key words: microplastics, freshwater environment, bibliometrics, cooccurrence, clustering, CiteSpace