Research Progress on Soil Security Assessment in Farmlands and Grasslands Based on Bibliometrics over the Last Four Decades

Abstract

Soil security assessments are an important part of the green development of agriculture and animal husbandry. To explore the research progress and development trends in the field of farmlands and grasslands soil security assessments, a bibliometric study was conducted using VOSviewer software to visually analyze 3618 papers from the Web of Science Core database on the topic of “soil security assessment” published from 1979 to 2023. The results revealed the following: (1) Research started in 1979; the number of papers can be divided based on germination, start-up, and rapid development stages. China published the most articles, the Chinese Academy of Sciences had the highest number of publications, and Science of the Total Environment issued the most publications (247). (2) Based on keywords, the research frontier can be divided into a distinct time sequence: the initial exploratory period (1979–2008), wherein relevant research focused on resource development and management; the rapid development period (2009–2015), wherein research focused on sustainable development and efficient farmland use; and the comprehensive development period (2016–2023), wherein research focused on the assessment, measurement, and evolution of cultivated land. (3) Related researches at home and abroad focus on land development and utilization, highlighting the rational development and efficient use of land; the security of industrial and supply chains, underlining risk assessment and promotion strategies; ecological security, emphasizing the ecological security assessments of agricultural production and the water environment; and ecosystem service value, underscoring spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors, evolution mechanisms, value prediction, and compensation strategy. Currently, there is an urgent need to develop soil security assessment models based on regional development, soil biology, spatial metrology, and other parameters, to establish an index system, and to analyze the evolution rules of soil security at different scales and investigate the scale effect of soil quality evaluations.