A bibliometric study on the use of diatoms in water quality monitoring and bioassessment in Africa across 10-year (2012-2022) period

Living organisms are used in water quality evaluation, thus reflecting the constantly changing physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic ecosystems. Diatoms are among the aquatic organisms used in water quality monitoring of both lentic and lotic ecosystems. The objectives of our present study were to summarize the topics in diatoms for water quality evaluation, and identify the past trends as well as the future directions through the analyses of trends in diatoms bioassessment topics in Africa. We retrieved diatoms distribution data from Web of Science (WoS) database using the following keywords "Diatoms for water quality monitoring in Africa", and "Diatoms for bioassessment in Africa". We used VOS viewer software (version 1.16.15) in the construction of knowledge map of application diatoms in monitoring and bioassessment. A total of 481 documents on diatom in water quality monitoring and bioassessment were found. A subsequent thresholding of keywords centered on 15 times occurrence yielded 37 keywords. Diatom indicators were related to diversity, benthic diatoms, communities, community structure, assemblages, land-use, and water quality as clustered by VOS viewer software. Regionally, South Africa is one of the top most developed country in Africa, and this has been attributted to greater infrastructural, human resource, and financial capacity to carry out research that led to substantial collaborations both locally and globally. Institutionally, the connection between University of Cape Town and Bayworld Centre for Research and Education in South Africa was strongest probably due to their better infrastructural capacity in diatoms research. Therefore, the study provided insights that are likely to contribute to the future development of water quality monitoring framework using diatoms in Africa, thereby enhancing global environmental sustainability. [GRAPHICS] .