An overview of soil erosion research in China through a lens of international journals

[Background]Soil erosion,the process by which soil is eroded,transported,and deposited by external forces like wind and water,is a widespread global phenomenon with significant environmental and economic impacts.Over the past two decades,China's soil erosion research has made significant strides,reaching a world-class level in both quality and quantity.However,there has been a lack of comprehensive studies summarizing the overall situation and development trends in this field.This study aims to fill that gap by providing an overview of the current status and trends in China's soil erosion research.[Methods]This study employed bibliometric methods to analyze 6588 journal articles on soil erosion in China,collected from the Scopus database.The analysis focused on several key aspects,including the number of publications,subject areas,leading research institutes,funding organizations,key research themes,and patterns of international collaboration.Additionally,network maps were generated using VOSviewer to visualize the intellectual structure and connections within the research field,offering insights into how different research topics and institutes are interconnected.[Results]The findings reveal a significant increase in the number of publications since the 1980s,rising from just 4 articles in 1981 to 699 articles in 2023.While soil erosion research is multidisciplinary in nature,the most popular subject areas were“Environmental Science”“Agriculture and Biological Sciences”and“Earth and Planetary Sciences”.The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the most productive institute,with several universities and government research institutes also making substantial contributions.The primary funding source was government organizations,with the National Natural Science Foundation of China being the largest funder.Journals focusing on water and soil,ecology,and environmental sciences were the primary platforms for publishing soil erosion research in China.Catena,Science of the Total Environment,Transactions of CSAM,and Acta Ecologica Sinica were the most productive journals.Six international collaboration networks were identified in this field.The largest network was from European Union,followed by the network with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,Singapore,and the United Kingdom,and the rest were cooperation relationships between the two countries(regions).The major research themes identified were“soil erosion and land degradation”“erosion dynamics and drivers”“soil erosion process and mechanism”and“erosion monitoring technology”.Earlier research was heavily focused on topics such as“GIS”“remote sensing”“Cs-137”“landscape pattern”“vegetation restoration”“simulated rainfall”“loess plateau”and“black soil.”In contrast,recent studies have shifted towards“climate change”“ecosystem services”“soil erodibility”“gully erosion”and“RUSLE”.[Conclusions]This study offers a comprehensive overview of China's soil erosion research,serving as a valuable resource for researchers and policy-makers interested in understanding the knowledge structure and development trends in this field.Additionally,the study highlights emerging research topics and potential areas for future exploration,thereby guiding the direction of subsequent studies in soil erosion.