What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to analyze trends and key topics in soil acidification and heavy metal pollution from two major databases.

April 19, 2026Open Access

Research on Soil Acidification and Heavy Metals: A Comparative Bibliometric Analysis Based on CNKI and Web of Science (2005–2025)

Key Points

This research aims to analyze trends and key topics in soil acidification and heavy metal pollution from two major databases.
Conducted a bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace on 691 CNKI records and 6747 Web of Science articles from 2005 to 2025.
Visualized research evolution and identified leading contributors and cooperation patterns.
Categorized studies based on thematic focus like agricultural needs, environmental science, and microbiology.
Global publications increased, with China leading at 2468 contributions.
Research clusters focused on agricultural applications in CNKI, while WOS highlighted interdisciplinary approaches.
Major research trends shifted from chemical analysis of heavy metals to integrated strategies like bioremediation and carbon sequestration.

Abstract

The synergistic effects of soil acidification and heavy metal pollution present major challenges for global agroecosystems. To systematically trace the evolution of research and identify key topics in this field, this study employed CiteSpace to visualize and analyze 691 records from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and 6747 highly relevant articles or reviews from the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database from 2005 to 2025. The results indicate a steady to rapid rise in global publications, with China contributing the largest share, at 2468 publications. This has produced a research cluster centered around the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); however, the centrality of its international cooperation remains limited. Studies in the CNKI database are driven by agricultural needs, focusing on national food security, rice yield stability, improvement of arable land, and heavy metal passivation and remediation, with a concentration on basic agricultural science. By contrast, research in the WOS database emphasizes fundamental mechanisms and interdisciplinary integration, addressing aluminum toxicity, microbial communities, the nitrogen cycle, and global climate change, intersecting fields such as environmental science, soil science, ecology, and microbiology. The evolution of research hotspots shows a clear trajectory: from acidity regulation and chemical speciation analysis of heavy metals (2005–2013), to heavy metal passivation, remediation, and phytoremediation (2014–2018), and then to biochar materials, microbiome analysis, and the synergistic role of carbon sequestration (2019–2025). This study argues that future research should move beyond single remediation measures and adopt integrated strategic management to jointly improve bioremediation efficiency, promote soil carbon sequestration and soil health, and enhance microbial adaptation to global climate change.

Research on Soil Acidification and Heavy Metals: A Comparative Bibliometric Analysis Based on CNKI and Web of Science (2005–2025)

Key Points

Abstract

Cite This Study

Also Consider

Also Consider