Biodiv Sci ›› 2018, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (12): 1255-1267.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2018265

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Research trends and hotspots of Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (CForBio): A bibliometric analysis

Ruiyu Fu1,2,3, Hongxin Su1, Zhonghua Zhang1,2, Gang Hu1,2,*()   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory of Beibu Gulf Environment Change and Resources Utilization of Ministry of Education, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001
    2 The Collaborative Innovation Center of the Ecological Environment and Integration Development in the Xijiang River Basin, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001
    3 School of Geography and Planning, Nanning Normal University, Nanning 530001
  • Received:2018-10-05 Accepted:2018-11-20 Online:2018-12-20 Published:2019-02-11
  • Contact: Hu Gang
  • About author:# Co-first authors

Abstract:

The research achievements of the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (CForBio), a comprehensive research platform for biodiversity science, are highly influential for promoting biodiversity-related research in China. A detailed assessment of CForBio’s publication growth, core research areas, and ability to foster cooperation will provide important information for the long-term development of CForBio and related ecological monitoring research. In order to understand CForBio’s impact on science, this study made a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of research papers produced by CForBio-associated scientists, published between 2007 and 2017, using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Web of Science databases. Since 2007, the number of papers published by CForBio has grown rapidly, from 3 in 2007 to 55 in 2017 , as has the number of papers published in journals included in the Science Citation Index (from 1 in 2007 to 34 in 2017). The top three most prolific authors are Guangze Jin (70 papers), Keping Ma (68 papers), and Zhanqing Hao (68 papers). The most active research institutions are the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (104 papers), the Institute of Applied Ecology of CAS (67 papers), and the South China Botanical Garden of CAS (59 papers). CForBio-associated institutions and scholars cooperate infrequently, and cross-unit collaborative research needs improvement. The core research topics of CForBio focus on patterns of tree spatial distribution, plant functional traits, tree density dependence, and community phylogeny; these topics provide a theoretical basis for elucidating the mechanisms of forest community assembly among the different climatic zones in China. In the future, CForBio should strengthen cooperation among institutions—both domestic and abroad, establish data sharing pathways, further emphasize new technologies and techniques such as near-surface remote sensing and multi-source data fusion, and continue to fund research on the multi-scale and multi-dimensional analysis of biodiversity patterns, plant-soil feedback mechanisms, and tree canopy and root structure function.

Key words: Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network (CForBio), research trends, bibliometric analysis, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)