4. Conclusion
This research summarized a comprehensive scientometric review on
hydrological connectivity from multiple perspectives based on web of
science retrieval and combined with CiteSpace. The relevant information
of hydrological connectivity research is conducted, including the
contribution analysis of subject categories, keywords, and co-cited
analysis of authors, journals, and references. Valuable insights can be
obtained from the results accordingly. Over the past decades, there were
3,307 publications on hydrological connectivity, and the published
number has steadily increased each year, which has significantly
improved the depth and breadth of hydrological connectivity research.
Studies on hydrological connectivity are mainly carried out from a
multi-disciplinary perspective, among which the most important fields
are Environmental Science and Ecology, Water Resources, GeoScience,
Environmental Science and Ecology. Additionally, Hydrological Processes,
Journal of Hydrology, Water Resources Research, Freshwater Biology and
Science are the top 5 most frequently cited journals as well as several
representative journals in the direction of hydrological connectivity.
Moreover, Ward JV, Junk WJ, Tockner K are the researchers who have made
outstanding contributions in this field due to their publications have a
better citation rate, and Bracken LJ has the Strongest Citation Bursts,
indicated the publications of whose are of great value.
Several hot spots and the high co-occurrence frequency points in the
research field are found based on the co-occurrence analysis of keywords
in 3 periods, and it may have certain reference significance for the
study of the development and frontier evolution of hydrological
connectivity. Early studies mainly focused on the hydrological
connectivity in small scale floodplains as well as the impact on
ecosystems and biodiversity. With time going on, the topic of the study
has shifted to the dynamics of hydrological connectivity and the use of
hydrological models for simulation. Recently, more attention has been
paid to integrity and comprehensiveness of hydrological connectivity,
the climate change as well as the evolution of spatial patterns have
attracted more attention, and the management of hydrological
connectivity has also received a lot of attention. According to co-cited
analysis and clustering results of references, amphibians is the largest
clustering cluster, and channel network is the most cited clustering
cluster, which is currently the main research direction. It is worth
noting that giws
(geographically
isolated wetlands) is the latest cluster of clustering, and due to its
potential impact on regional hydrological connectivity, giws has
received a lot of attention, which may be a research hotspot in the
future.
As time progresses and with the development of the environment, economy,
and society, the research subjects in different stages vary, but on the
whole, the research on hydrological connectivity presents a stage of
steady development and continuous innovation. The scale of hydrological
connectivity is from small patch to large watershed and landscape, also
the development of dimension is from single dimension to
multi-dimensional spatio-temporal coupling. In addition, we applied
CiteSpace software to conduct co-occurrence and co-cited analysis of
literatures. However, due to some problems of CiteSpace software itself,
some small deviations in our research are inevitable. The results of
this study are based on objective data analysis which are less affected
by subjective experience, with stability and objectivity.