Greenville Aaron C, Dickman Chris R, Wardle Glenda M
Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
National Environmental Science Programme Threatened Species Recovery Hub, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
PLoS One. 2017 Apr 6;12(4):e0175014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175014. eCollection 2017.
Growth in the publication of scientific articles is occurring at an exponential rate, prompting a growing need to synthesise information in a timely manner to combat urgent environmental problems and guide future research. Here, we undertake a topic analysis of dryland literature over the last 75 years (8218 articles) to identify areas in arid ecology that are well studied and topics that are emerging. Four topics-wetlands, mammal ecology, litter decomposition and spatial modelling, were identified as 'hot topics' that showed higher than average growth in publications from 1940 to 2015. Five topics-remote sensing, climate, habitat and spatial, agriculture and soils-microbes, were identified as 'cold topics', with lower than average growth over the survey period, but higher than average numbers of publications. Topics in arid ecology clustered into seven broad groups on word-based similarity. These groups ranged from mammal ecology and population genetics, broad-scale management and ecosystem modelling, plant ecology, agriculture and ecophysiology, to populations and paleoclimate. These patterns may reflect trends in the field of ecology more broadly. We also identified two broad research gaps in arid ecology: population genetics, and habitat and spatial research. Collaborations between population genetics and ecologists and investigations of ecological processes across spatial scales would contribute profitably to the advancement of arid ecology and to ecology more broadly.
科学文章的发表数量正以指数级速度增长，这使得及时整合信息以应对紧迫的环境问题并指导未来研究的需求日益增加。在此，我们对过去75年的旱地文献（8218篇文章）进行了主题分析，以确定干旱生态学中研究充分的领域和新兴话题。湿地、哺乳动物生态学、凋落物分解和空间建模这四个主题被确定为“热门话题”，它们在1940年至2015年期间的文章发表量增长高于平均水平。遥感、气候、栖息地与空间、农业以及土壤-微生物这五个主题被确定为“冷门话题”，在调查期内其增长低于平均水平，但发表数量高于平均水平。基于词汇相似性，干旱生态学中的主题聚为七大类。这些类别涵盖了从哺乳动物生态学与种群遗传学、大规模管理与生态系统建模、植物生态学、农业与生态生理学，到种群与古气候等领域。这些模式可能更广泛地反映了生态学领域的趋势。我们还确定了干旱生态学中的两个主要研究空白：种群遗传学以及栖息地与空间研究。种群遗传学与生态学家之间的合作以及跨空间尺度的生态过程研究，将为干旱生态学乃至更广泛的生态学发展做出有益贡献。
