Analysis of avian research trends related to rice fields in South Korea using text mining

Rice fields are wetland ecosystems serving as crucial habitats for various organisms. Birds use these ecosystems as breeding, stopover, and wintering sites. Studies on birds that use rice fields have been continuously conducted worldwide and have recently gained interest in South Korea. This study aimed to determine the research trends and characteristics of avian research related to rice fields in South Korea using the text mining technique. Among the 118 peer-reviewed papers, the number of published papers per decade increased steadily from the 1990s to the 2010s, with an increasing trend in the direct relevance to rice fields. The number of papers was the highest for the bird orders Ciconiiformes and Gruiformes, followed by Anseriformes and Charadriiformes. Additionally, the number of papers was the highest in Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do, followed by Gangwon-do and Jeollabuk-do. Further, the text mining results showed that the most frequently used words were “rice,” “habitat,” and “species,” followed by “wintering,” “feeding,” and “population.” Thus, based on the observed trends of avian research in rice fields in South Korea, it will be helpful for suggesting the direction of birds studies in rice fields as an important habitat at the future researcher or national level.