CiteSpace Software Visualization Analyses of the Last Thirty Years of Research on Populus euphratica

Abstract

Populus euphratica is the only tall tree species that adapts to the desert environment. It has strong drought tolerance and is the subject of extreme concern at home and abroad. After 30 years of development, the scope of research on Populus euphratica is very extensive, but the research content has not yet been crystalized into a mature field, and research directions at home and abroad differ. In this study, we retrieved research references on ‘P. euphratica’ published from 1992 to 2022 in both the China National Knowledge Infrastructure core journals database and the Web of Science core collection database, and CiteSpace software was employed to conduct keyword-centered bibliometric analysis in both the spatial and temporal dimensions. The purpose of this study is to clarify the research areas, developmental changes, differences between domestic and international research priorities in the last 30 years, and future trends in the field of P. euphratica research. The results show that there were 1619 domestic papers published in China related to the field of P. euphratica research, while there were only 656 foreign papers in the same field. The development of domestic P. euphratica research went through three stages initiation (1992–2000), growth (2001–2008) and stability (2009–2021), whereas no significant international trend change was observed. The domestic disciplines focus on biology, while international research focuses on crop science. In terms of content, domestic research focuses on sustainable uses of P. euphratica forests and their response to drought, intending to improve P. euphratica ecosystems. International research, on the other hand, focuses on revealing mechanisms of environmental stresses, including genetic and physiological–morphological characteristics, to exploit the excellent characteristics of P. euphratica to serve agriculture and other fields. The development process of P. euphratica research in the past 30 years has generally evolved from an initial focus on its natural conditions towards the study of the relationship between environmental factors and P. euphratica physiological and morphological characteristics and, finally, the study of stress tolerance mechanisms and gene expression of P. euphratica. There is a trend towards ‘applications of P. euphratica tolerance genes’, which may represent a direction for future growth research.

Unraveling two decades of phyllosphere endophytes: tracing research trends and insights through visualized knowledge maps, with emphasis on microbial interactions as emerging frontiers

“…By analyzing the keyword burst (the keywords with a large change in frequency within a short time) in a large number of literature, CiteSpace could clearly show the research fronts/research hotspots in the field (Huang et al 2023 ). Hence, nodes with high-frequency keywords are considered cutting-edge content within their field.…”

Integration of Smart Cities and Building Information Modeling (BIM) for a Sustainability Oriented Business Model to Address Sustainable Development Goals

“…These networks are built upon co-citations, bibliographic couplings, and collaborations among journals, scholars, and specific works [21]. CiteSpace (6.2.R4) serves as an information visualization software tool primarily employed for the measurement and analysis of scientific knowledge data [22]. In this paper, the raw data were imported into the VOSviewer (1.6.18) and CiteSpace (6.2.R4) software to visualize the structure of knowledge, including the research background statistics, network visualization, burst detection, and overlay visualization, to address research objective 1.…”

The Euphrates Poplar Responses to Abiotic Stress and Its Unique Traits in Dry Regions of China (Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia): What Should We Know?

“…The Tarim River, the longest inland river in China, flows through the desert, fed by melting snow from Tianshan Mountains [160]. Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia has had a P. euphratica tree growing there for over 800 years [2,161,162]. The locals refer to it as a "sacred tree."…”

“…Research suggests that P. euphratica can adapt to severe atmospheres by regulating tolerance genes, particularly in leaves related to photosynthesis. Recent applied research, such as the improved tobacco drought tolerance, highlights the importance of gene applications and techniques in enhancing P. euphratica's resilience to drought [2]. It has been demonstrated that genes increase stress tolerance by influencing physiological morphology through the study of the molecular control mechanisms of leaf morphology and physiological alterations in P. euphratica.…”

“…(P. euphratica), the Euphrates poplar or desert poplar, is nonhalophyte and mesophyte in its morphology, but has a high abiotic stress tolerance [1] and is an important component of riparian ecosystems in arid regions. This poplar tree species is mainly distributed in Southwestern Europe, including Spain [2]; Western Asian countries, including Iran [3], Iraq, Syria, and Turkey [4]; Central Asia, including Kazakhstan [5]; Pakistan [6]; India [7]; and China's western Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and other arid regions [8][9][10][11][12]. It is also found in many other countries outside of Asia, such as the Middle East and North Africa (Kenya and Morocco [13,14]).…”