Author(s): SANTOS, S. N. dos; ROLIM NETO, F. C.; OLIVEIRA, M. A.; CORRÊA, M. M.; PARAHYBA, R. da B. V.; CALDAS, A. M.; ARRUDA, V. C. M. de

Summary: Studies on freshwater meiofauna are still enigmatic. This field of research is relatively neglected because this topic is not as increasing as the others, creating a gap in this area. The deficit of knowledge and surveys impose a barrier to new research and the increase of scientific interest in this area. This paper briefly reviews what exists in freshwater meiofauna worldwide, focusing on increasing knowledge on this topic and making this little-known area of meiofauna a common study field in science. The methodology involved a bibliographic survey from the Web of Science (WOS) bibliographic database. The search was performed by document title, keywords, and abstract, highlighting meiofauna (or meiobenthos) and hyporheic zone (or hyporheos). The results showed 28 documents on hyporheic meiofauna worldwide, mainly concentrated in Germany. The few articles highlighted that the lack of research on the hyporheic meiofauna community, its ecology, taxonomy, and biology is evident. It is hoped that this bibliometric review can be used as an alert about this area of meiofauna that is so important but at the same time is neglected, having a very exclusive group of authors and works, being of extreme importance different directions of research that involves hyporheic meiofauna to a better understanding of this fauna importance, ecosystemic services, and ecology.

Publication year: 2023

Types of publication: Journal article

Unit: Embrapa Soils

Keywords: Bibliometrix, Ecologia, Ecology, Estado da arte, Meiobentos, Meiofauna, Revisão bibliométrica, State of the art