Research hotspots and trends of groundwater and ecology studies: Based on a bibliometric approach

Groundwater, as a critical component of the hydrological cycle, is essential for sustainable ecosystem development. To clarify the current status of domestic and overseas research, and to identify hotspots, frontier and future trends of groundwater and ecology research, this study utilizes bibliometric methods and CiteSpace software to examine relevant published articles in the Web of Science (WOS) and CNKI databases from 1978 to 2022. Specifically, this study analyzes (1) the annual number of published papers; (2) research institutions; (3) keywords; and (4) evolution of research hotspots. The findings reveal that the United States, China, and Germany are the top three countries in groundwater and ecology research. International research hotspots mainly focus on microbial ecology, climate change, groundwater-surface water interactions in the hyporheic zone, biodiversity, and submarine groundwater discharge, while domestic research hotspots mainly focus on ecological water conveyance, ecological flow, groundwater development and utilization, groundwater pollution, and groundwater and ecological protection. Both domestic and international research hotspots exhibit interdisciplinary features with diverse research objects and assessment methods. Future research in this area is expected to focus on topics such as contamination, groundwater quality, framework, mechanism, spatial distribution, and dissolved organic matter. Additionally, the study of ecological recharge, ecological flow, ecological protection, water intake and use will continue to be the hot topics domestically.