Bibliometric analysis of research trends and focuses of plant functional traits

Plant functional traits (PFTs) are a research focus in ecology, and an illustration of the research focuses and development of this field that can serve as a reference for future related research. Through the retrieval of relevant papers on PFTs published from 1998 to 2017 from the Web of Science and extracted literature information, this study applied a bibliometric analysis to analyze information on 1938 papers to reveal the research focuses, development patterns and potential problems of this field. The results show the following: research on PFTs has undergone three stages from 1998-2017: slow development (1998-2002), steady growth (2003- 2009) and rapid development (2010-2017). The scholar with the largest number of published papers is Reich PB (56 papers) followed by Lavorel S (51 papers) and Garnier E (48 papers). The country with the most published papers is the United States (579 papers), followed by France (302 papers) and China (279 papers). The research institution with the largest number of published papers is the Chinese Academy of Sciences (161 papers), followed by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (94 papers) and the University of Minnesota (87 papers). The Journal of Vegetation Science, Journal of Ecology and New Phytologist are the three journals with the most published papers. A keyword analysis shows that research focuses of this field include the trade-off between functional traits, the relationship between PFTs and community assembly, and the impact of PFTs on responses to global climate change.