Trends and Hotspots in Soil Minerals’ Impacts on Carbon Stability Research: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Web of Science

The association with minerals is the most critical factor influencing the stability of organic carbon in soil. It is essential to gain an in-depth understanding of the research progress and future development trends regarding the impact of soil minerals on organic carbon stability both domestically and internationally and to identify current key issues; a total of 1834 research papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database were selected as the data source. These papers were examined using CiteSpace, HistCite, VOSviewer, and Origin 9.1 tools. The analysis categorized and visualized data based on countries, institutions, journals, disciplines, and keywords, utilizing indices like the number of articles and total/average citation frequency. The results indicate that the number of publications on the study of soil minerals and their impact on organic carbon stability has been increasing from 2013 to 2023. China and the United States have significantly led in the number of publications in this field. However, research collaborations among countries also exhibit significant regional characteristics. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has the most publications. Yet, its average frequency of local citations is only 0.81 per paper, significantly lower than the top ten average of 2.23 per paper. The journal with the highest number of articles in this field is Nature Communications, with 248 articles. The main research hotspots focus on aspects such as the adsorption of organic carbon by minerals, catalytic transformation, and redox reactions. Future research should build on this foundation to focus more on detailed mechanisms, particularly the long-term effects of different environmental factors and time scales on soil carbon stability.