Most-cited Environmental Science papers of 2020, with free PDFs

The 25 most-cited Environmental Science research papers published in 2020, ranked by citations in OpenAlex, with their original abstracts and free PDFs where available.

1. Environmental and Health Impacts of Air Pollution: A Review
   Ioannis Manisalidis, Elisavet Stavropoulou et al. · 2020 · 5,239 citations · Free PDF
2. Heavy metal pollution in the environment and their toxicological effects on humans
   Jessica Briffa, Emmanuel Sinagra et al. · 2020 · 4,375 citations
3. AGREE─Analytical GREEnness Metric Approach and Software
   Francisco Pena‐Pereira, W. Wojnowski et al. · 2020 · 4,002 citations
4. Persulfate-Based Advanced Oxidation: Critical Assessment of Opportunities and Roadblocks
   Jaesang Lee, Urs von Gunten et al. · 2020 · 3,649 citations · Free PDF
5. Degradation Rates of Plastics in the Environment
   Ali Chamas, Hyunjin Moon et al. · 2020 · 3,462 citations
6. Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta
   Antonio Ragusa, Alessandro Svelato et al. · 2020 · 3,427 citations · Free PDF
7. Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution
   Stephanie B. Borrelle, Jeremy L. Ringma et al. · 2020 · 3,212 citations · Free PDF
8. The Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2)
   Gökhan Danabasoglu, Jean‐François Lamarque et al. · 2020 · 3,090 citations
9. The Effects of Cadmium Toxicity
   Giuseppe Genchi, Maria Stefania Sinicropi et al. · 2020 · 2,701 citations · Free PDF
10. Global Carbon Budget 2020
    Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O’Sullivan et al. · 2020 · 2,558 citations · Free PDF
11. An overview of the uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
    Juliane Glüge, Martin Scheringer et al. · 2020 · 2,439 citations
12. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Toxicity and Human Health Review: Current State of Knowledge and Strategies for Informing Future Research
    Suzanne E. Fenton, ALAN M. DUCATMAN et al. · 2020 · 2,414 citations
13. Plant responses to rising vapor pressure deficit
    Charlotte Grossiord, Thomas N. Buckley et al. · 2020 · 2,306 citations · Free PDF
14. Microbiome definition re-visited: old concepts and new challenges
    Gabriele Berg, Daria Rybakova et al. · 2020 · 2,264 citations · Free PDF
15. Scientists' warning on invasive alien species
    Petr Pyšek, Philip Eric Hulme et al. · 2020 · 2,229 citations · Free PDF
16. Air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: Strengths and limitations of an ecological regression analysis
    Xiao Jun Wu, Rachel C. Nethery et al. · 2020 · 1,997 citations
17. A Detailed Review Study on Potential Effects of Microplastics and Additives of Concern on Human Health
    Claudia Campanale, Carmine Massarelli et al. · 2020 · 1,974 citations · Free PDF
18. Increasing trends in regional heatwaves
    Sarah E Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Sophie C. Lewis · 2020 · 1,928 citations · Free PDF
19. The shared socio-economic pathway (SSP) greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions to 2500
    Malte Alexander Meinshausen, Zebedee Nicholls et al. · 2020 · 1,819 citations · Free PDF
20. Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution
    Winnie W. Y. Lau, Yonathan Shiran et al. · 2020 · 1,769 citations
21. CheckV assesses the quality and completeness of metagenome-assembled viral genomes
    Stephen Nayfach, Antônio Pedro Camargo et al. · 2020 · 1,769 citations · Free PDF
22. Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models
    Mark D. Zelinka, Timothy A. Myers et al. · 2020 · 1,763 citations
23. Reconstructing Three Decades of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Brazilian Biomes with Landsat Archive and Earth Engine
    Carlos Moreira de Souza Júnior, Julia Z. Shimbo et al. · 2020 · 1,722 citations
24. Presentation and Evaluation of the IPSL‐CM6A‐LR Climate Model
    Oliviér Boucher, Jérôme Servonnat et al. · 2020 · 1,702 citations
25. A commentary review on the use of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the era of popular remote sensing
    Sha Huang, Lina Tang et al. · 2020 · 1,663 citations · Free PDF

2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

New Environmental Science papers