Review and Exploration of China Subtropical Climate Change Research Based on Scientometric Analysis

Never before have we had so many different ways to investigate China subtropical climate change as it is gradually becoming significant to know the details about the relationship between climate change and China, specifically in subtropical areas. To learn the current situation and emerging trends of China subtropical climate change research, this article utilizes CiteSpace to provide a general picture about the research field by analyzing 926 publications between 1990 and 2017, which are retrieved from Web of Science. According to the results, some interesting findings are illustrated in this study: (a) The papers that investigate interdecadal change and data-model comparison made great theoretical contributions to China subtropical climate change research; (b) China, the United States, Australia, and Germany are the biggest contributors to China subtropical climate change research, and most of the productive institutions are from China; (c) the emerging trends of China subtropical climate change research are “soil moisture,” “net ecosystem exchange,” and “autotrophic respiration”; and (d) most of China subtropical climate change studies are related to atmospheric model intercomparison project model, CO2 fertilization, and pollen record. This article provides an overall analysis about China subtropical climate change research for researchers who are interested in this field to do further investigations.