Abstract:

To understand the research status of ecological networks, a high-level analysis of ecological networks research domain is performed using scientometrics methods and visualization tools. We compiled the data of 2782 articles during the period of 2007-2022 from Web of Science Core Collections (WOSCC) database, and conducted a scientometric analysis using bibliometrix package of R and VOSviewer. We aimed to assess the annual distribution of publications, countries, institutes, authors, journals and categories of ecological network researches. Furthermore, key topics and highly-cited papers were analyzed. The results showed that the output of papers focusing on ecological network had increased linearly and attracted much more attentions since 2007. The countries contributed to most of these papers are mainly China, USA, Britain, France and other European and American countries, while the top institutes included Beijing Normal University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Sao Paulo, University of Canterbury and National Autonomous University of Mexico. The papers were primarily published on 565 journals (or books), including top journals of Ecological Modeling, Ecological Letters, Ecological Indicators, and OIKOS, all of which were well-known journals in the field of Ecology. The study identified that the subjects of ecological networks could be divided into five major groups: landscape network and biodiversity protection, climate change and networks stability, microbial community network, animal-plant mutualistic networks and co-occurrence networks, and the model and application of ecological network analysis. The highly cited papers in the period 2007-2021 indicated that Food webs, Mutualistic networks, Molecular ecological network and Stability were the highest impact research areas of ecological networks, and the application of ecological network in the study of the impact of global change on ecosystem is likely to be the main direction of ecological network research in the future. In addition, future research should pay more attention to the ecosystem multi-layer network construction and its stability mechanism.

Key words: ecosystem, ecological networks, biodiversity, complex network, global change

摘要：

基于图论（graph）发展而来的生态网络（ecological network）理论,为揭示生态系统组分之间的相互关系、生态系统复杂性和稳定性以及生态系统演变规律和驱动机制等的研究提供了全新视角。为了解生态网络研究的现状和趋势,基于Web of Science 核心数据库（WoSCC）,利用R语言文献计量分析程序包bibliometrix和知识图谱分析软件VOSviewer,对WoSCC中检索到的2782篇与生态网络相关的文献,从产出时间趋势、国家/地区和研究机构分布、文献刊载源、研究热点主题和高被引论文分布情况等方面进行文献计量和知识图谱分析。结果表明,2007年以来,生态网络相关的研究文献产出量呈线性增长趋势;发表文献最多的国家（地区）主要是中国以及美国、英国、法国等欧美国家,其中中国的累积发文量最多;北京师范大学、中国科学院、巴西圣保罗大学、新西兰坎特伯雷大学等科研机构发表论文最多。检索到的2782篇文献主要来源于Ecological Modelling、Ecology Letters、Ecological Indicators、OIKOS等生态学领域的知名期刊;生态网络的研究主要集中于景观网络及生物多样性保护、气候变化和网络稳定性、微生物群落网络、动物-植物互惠及生物共现网络、生态网络分析的模型及应用等5个主题类群,其中,生态网络在研究全球变化对生态系统影响中的应用很有可能成为未来生态网络研究的主要方向。未来的研究应关注多层生态网络的构建、多层网络结构特征分析、多层网络稳定性机制等方面。

关键词: 生态系统, 生态网络, 生物多样性, 复杂网络, 全球变化