Producción Científica

Uruguay has recently expanded its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), having more aquatic sovereignty than terrestrial territories. In this country, various State institutions have carried out the study of marine science for several decades, but their academic development has not been analyzed. The formal evaluation of scientific research represents a crucial opportunity to define long-term policies requiring greater knowledge of the territory and its resources. In this context, this work carries out a systematic and quantitative review of Uruguay authors’ international publications over three decades. The productivity indicators trend is evaluated concerning context variables, predominant research topics are identified, and collaboration networks are characterized. We collected and analyzed data on marine science articles in which an author or co-author is affiliated to an institution in Uruguay from 1990 to 2018 using the Scopus database. It was found that scientific activity measured by a bibliographic analysis showed an increase in the number of articles, authors, and research topics but nowadays show signs of stagnation. Moreover, specific indicators show a great degree of centralism (institutional and authorial), low dynamism, and decreased international collaboration. The largest academic capacities are focused in specific biological disciplines, with little physics and almost nil in geology and chemistry. Decentralization and strengthening sectorial funding for marine science will boost Uruguay’s discipline for facing future challenges.

Landslide occurrence has become increasingly influenced by human activities. Accordingly, changing land use and land cover (LULC) is an important conditioning factor in landslide susceptibility models. We present a bibliometric analysis and review of how LULC was explored in the context of landslide susceptibility in 536 scientific articles from 2001 to 2020. The pattern of publications and citations reveals that most articles hardly focus on the relationship between LULC and landslides despite a growing interest in this topic. Most research outputs came from Asian countries (some of which are frequently affected by landslides), and mostly with prominent international collaboration. We recognised three major research themes regarding the characteristics of LULC data, different simulated scenarios of LULC changes, and the role of future scenarios for both LULC and landslide susceptibility. The most frequently studied LULC classes included roads, soils (in the broadest sense), and forests, often to approximate the negative impacts of expanding infrastructure, deforestation, or major land use changes involving agricultural practice. We highlight several articles concerned primarily with current practice and future scenarios of changing land use in the context of landslides. The relevance of LULC in landslide susceptibility analysis is growing slowly, though with much potential to be explored for future LULC scenario analysis and to close gaps in many study areas.

A notable diversity of marine mammals inhabits the Atlantic and Pacific waters of South America. For decades, South American countries have been producing scientific research focused on these species. However, still, there is no systematic assessment of the magnitude and main subjects on which this research has been focused. This study analyzes the trends and patterns in scientific research on marine mammals in South America, evaluating a pool of bibliometric indicators and mapping collaborative relationships among countries, authors, and research areas. Academic documents were retrieved from two bibliographic databases: SCOPUS and SciELO, from 1990 to 2020. Results showed a gradual increase in publications along the three study decades. Brazil played a central role in the number of publications in both databases, followed by Argentina and Chile. The South American publications on marine mammals were centralized in a small number of journals, and few authors were responsible for a large proportion of contributions. The authors showed a moderate level of collaboration, mainly reflecting stronger links among neighbor countries, including co-authorships with North American and European countries. The most frequent keywords reflected three clusters centered in taxonomic groups (Cetacea, Odontoceti, and Pinnipedia) and two centered in research subjects (pollution and phylogenetics). The scope of the contributions differed among collections. Nevertheless, both databases were complementary and contributed to show marine mammals’ research in South America.