Mapping the spatio-temporal dynamics of global mangrove crabs to reveal its status and challenges: A bibliometric evaluation of research output during 1980–2016

Crabs are the most dominant groups in mangrove ecosystem and play a vital role in building and sustaining the structure and function of the mangrove ecosystems. However, a systematic evaluation of global research status of mangrove crabs is still lacking. Here, a bibliometric analysis based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) was carried out to provide insights into research activities, tendencies, and challenges of the mangrove crabs from 1980 to 2016. The results showed that the average annual output of the publications was low. Brazil took a leading position out of the 63 countries/territories with the largest number of publications, followed by USA, Australia, China, and Germany. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology was the most popular journal. The reproductive ecology (e.g., reproduction), population ecology (e.g., population structure), and their relationship were the mainstream. The estuarine ecosystem and the method of stable isotope received ecologists’ favor. Behavioral ecology (e.g., bioturbation), ecosystem function (e.g., carbon), and the ecological effect among them were the main issues in this field. Biodiversity was a new hot topic. Brazil, Australia, USA, China, and Kenya were the top five hot regions among the 53 hot countries on a global scale. Different regions have different hot topics. The breeding ecology was the most popular theme in the Americas region, the ecological effects of crabs were the most hotstops in the Africa-East Asia region and the East and South Asia-Oceania region. The challenges of the development were not comprehensive and uneven on a global scale. There was a certain number of countries with mangrove distributions were still outside this field, such as most of the western and northeastern countries of Africa (e.g., Angola), some Central American countries (e.g., Guatemala), and some western and southeast Asian countries (e.g., Cambodia). Furthermore, we found that some topics were ignored or lagged in each territory. Our results highlight that the global research status of mangrove crab is still at a relatively backward stage, and regional development is extremely unbalanced.