Fungi as Allies in Environmental Remediation: A Global Bibliometric Assessment of Mycoremediation Research

Background: Mycoremediation, the use of fungi to degrade, transform, or immobilize environmental pollutants, has emerged as a sustainable and innovative environmental remediation strategy. Understanding global research trends in this field is essential to identify scientific progress, research gaps, and emerging directions. Objectives: To evaluate the global research landscape, trends, and emerging themes in mycoremediation through a bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed publications. Methods: A bibliometric analysis was conducted using the Scopus database, utilizing 907 documents related to mycoremediation. Bibliometric mapping was performed using Scopus Analyze, Bibliometrix, and VOSviewer to examine publication trends, document types, subject areas, journals, authors, institutions, countries, and thematic evolution. Results: Research activity was limited between 1976 and the early 2000s, with fewer than ten publications annually. Growth accelerated after 2010 and increased significantly after 2015, reaching more than 125 publications in 2024. Journal articles dominated the dataset, reflecting strong interdisciplinarity across environmental science, microbiology, agriculture, biochemistry, and engineering. Chemosphere emerged as the leading journal, while highly cited studies focused on fungal biosorption, hydrocarbon degradation, and plastic biodegradation. Authorship and country analyses identified India, Europe, and the United States as key contributors and central collaborators. Thematic evolution revealed a shift from early research on ligninolytic enzymes and hydrocarbons to emerging topics such as heavy metals, dye effluents, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Conclusion: Mycoremediation research has expanded rapidly and is increasingly recognized as an ecologically relevant solution to environmental pollution. However, gaps remain, including limited field-scale applications, underutilization of omics technologies, and low research representation from biodiversity-rich regions. Future work should integrate molecular tools, strengthen global collaboration, and translate laboratory findings into scalable environmental applications.