Global trends in ecosystem services research

Ecosystem services represent the direct and indirect benefits that ecosystems provide to human well-being and have become a central topic in environmental research. Given the expansion of this field and the growing use of bibliometric approaches to examine its development, this study aimed to analyze the temporal evolution, geographic distribution, and collaboration patterns of scientific production on ecosystem services from 1994 to 2025. Data were retrieved from the Scopus database using the term “ecosystem services” in titles, abstracts, and keywords, and were analyzed using VOSviewer. A total of 68,149 publications were identified, involving 74,726 organizations and 91,128 author labels from multiple countries and territories. The results indicate a marked increase in scientific output after 2010, with the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany standing out in terms of publication volume, citation impact, and network centrality. In Latin America, Brazil showed relevant participation, especially in international collaboration networks. Keyword occurrence patterns highlight the prominence of themes related to biodiversity, climate change, and sustainability, while also indicating the visibility of some countries as geographic research contexts. The findings further suggest asymmetries in the geographic distribution of scientific production, with lower representation of countries and regions showing limited connectivity in international collaboration networks, particularly parts of Africa, small island states, and other countries with low participation in the Scopus-indexed literature. Overall, this study provides an updated overview of global publication patterns on ecosystem services and contributes to ongoing discussions on scientific collaboration, knowledge production, and the international distribution of research capacity in this field.