Using Bibliometric Analysis to Understand the Recent Progress in Agroecosystem Services Research.

Abstract As a semi-natural ecosystem, the agroecosystem is both a major provider and a major beneficiary of ecosystem services (ES). The aim of this paper was to contribute to the scientific understanding of the current status of AES research, recognize the knowledge base and influential articles, and uncover the key research themes and how the research themes have evolved over the past decade. Bibliometric methods based on the ISI Web of Science (WoS) database were used to analyse articles related to AES published between 2008 and 2017. A total of 3573 records were evaluated during this study. The results show that there has been a significant increase in research interest in the AES field. The most frequent keywords were "Biodiversity", "Land use change" and "Climate change". This study divides the common keywords into 7 categories and analyses them over two periods. Agrobiodiversity and land use have been emphasized in current AES research, which is a trend that will likely continue in the future. Valuation is indispensable, but AES research has needs beyond monetary valuation. In the future, multisubject and multimethod integrative research for understanding, modelling, evaluating, and managing the AES will be more abundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]