BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING.

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) and its intrinsic mechanisms has always been a hot research topic among ecologists. However, there are few recent reviews and syntheses on BEF research. We analyze the annual publication volume, research strength, and research hotspots of the literature about BEF in Web of Science from 2001 to 2021 to explore the current status and future trends. The results showed that the number of publications on BEF research increased steadily from 2001 to 2021, with the initial development stage occurring before 2007 and a steady growth stage from 2008 to 2012, as well as a steady growth trend can be observed in the number of publications. After 2013, it entered a phase of rapid development, with the highest number of publications in 2021, with 596 publications. The studies were mainly conducted in developed countries, such as the USA, England, and France, which outstood in terms of the quantity and quality of literature published. China has the 5th highest number of publications in the world and the strongest growth in the last 5 years. The Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) was the institution with the most publications, while the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDIV), the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), and the Helmholtz Association all accounted for more than 60% of their respective publication volumes in the last 5 years, demonstrating the trend of rapid development in Germany in recent five years. The author with the most publications was Schmid B, while Verheyen K had been more active with 69.23% of the total number of papers published over the previous five years. Ecology was the journal with the most publications among the top 15 journals, but Global Change Biology and PNAS had the highest impact factors and the highest average citation frequency. The BEF hotspots primarily concentrate on biodiversity and its productivity, but with the extinction of species around the world, the effects of climate change, and the loss of biodiversity, it is important to investigate the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services. There is a disparity in the number of publications and average citations per article between scholars in China and in European and American countries. However, the number of Chinese publications increased rapidly in the last five years. Furthermore, BEF relationships are anticipated to differ across multiple trophic levels, but this subject has received less attention in terms of animal diversity, belowground biodiversity, and ecosystem multifunctionality within and across ecosystems, which needs to be thoroughly investigated to provide a strong base for the conservation of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]