Mapping the use of ecological indicators across the marine research landscape: A global bibliometric analysis

Marine ecological indicators are essential tools for evaluating environmental status and guiding sustainable management, yet their use in scientific literature varies widely. To synthesize the extensive research involving ecological indicators, interpret thematic and regional trends and highlight major gaps, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 6828 scientific publications retrieved from SCOPUS from 1955 to 2025. Publications increased exponentially over time, and originated mostly from North America, China, and Western Europe, with fewer contributions from North and Central Africa. A term-clustering analysis identified four main research areas: a) marine ecosystem attributes and sustainable management; b) community composition and structure; c) benthic ecosystems and related indices; and d) environmental pollution and contamination. Publication and citation rates per cluster show a clear shift from descriptive studies towards applied ecology and conservation-focused research. Finally, most of the international collaborations leading to the publications of our dataset link back to the aforementioned high-publicing regions, highlighting the need to promote a more balanced global scientific participation to tackle global and regional needs. Our findings validate the need to move towards evidence-based management and conservation planning, which require the development and application of integrative, ecosystem-level indicators that can translate complex environmental data into reliable measures of ecosystem health and functioning. Effective, systematic monitoring tools can accelerate the operationalization of such indicators. However, emerging technologies (including automated monitoring systems and molecular approaches) are currently underrepresented in the literature and offer unprecedented opportunities to support informed, adaptive conservation strategies under ongoing anthropogenic pressures.