A bibliometric review on fluvial carbon fluxes during 1997-2022

Abstract

Abstract Fluvial carbon fluxes (FCFs) have attracted growing attention in recent decades due to its indispensable role in the global carbon cycle and budgets. To identify the major characteristics and evolutionary trends of FCFs related research, this study adopts a bibliometric method to analyze the publications retrieved from the database of Web of Science during 1997–2022. The information related to countries, institutes, authors, journals, collaboration, keywords and research trends is presented. Findings show that the publication number of FCFs related research had significant increase in the past 25 years. Science of the Total Environment, Biogeosciences and Journal of Hydrology were the most influential journals in this field. China, the USA and France ranked the top 3 countries in publication number. Previous studies concentrated on the source and fate, influential factors, process and estimation model of FCFs. The research trend of FCFs may focus on FCFs of Arctic rivers and their biogeochemical processes, the impact of human activities on FCFs, new techniques developed for FCFs research, and carbon exchange estimates across water-air interface. This study provides researchers with a better understanding of the current state of FCFs and serves as an effective reference for future studies.