Organic carbon sequestration in global croplands: evidenced through a bibliometric approach

Muhammad Mohsin Abrar ¹ Muhammad Ahmed Waqas ² Khalid Mehmood ³ Ruqin Fan ¹ Muhammad Suleman Memon ⁴ Muhammad Ajmal Khan ⁵ Nadeem Siddique ⁶ Minggang Xu ⁷ Jianjun Du ^1*

• ¹ Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China
• ² Aarhus University, Aarhus, Central Denmark Region, Denmark
• ³ Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
• ⁴ Soil Fertility Research Institute (SFRI), Tandojam Hyderabad, Pakistan
• ⁵ Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
• ⁶ Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
• ⁷ Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

Increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) in cropland soils improves soil health and water quality, crop productivity, and resilience to climate-driven changes by influencing key soil processes. However, research on cropland SOC sequestration based on bibliometric analyses of highly cited documents is lacking. This bibliometric study investigated the current status and development characteristics, research impact, intellectual base, and research hotspots of highly cited cropland SOC sequestration research using the Web of Science Core Collection databases from 2012 to 2022. The analysis and visualization tools such as Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Power BI, and Flourish Studio, provided a comprehensive approach for research evaluation, identifying trends, and knowledge mapping of cropland SOC sequestration research. The findings indicate that the USA and China dominate global research, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences as the leading institution. Key journals include Soil Biology and Biochemistry and Geoderma. The trend topic graph indicated that “soil organic carbon” and “soil organic matter” are the most persistent themes since 2015. In contrast, recent research focuses on “climate change mitigation,” “soil health” and “soil aggregation”. Moreover, citation burst analysis revealed that “organic matter” is a strong keyword (3.51), and the manuscript authored by Miltner et al. (2012) is a strong (4.11) document offering significant insights into organic matter transformation and stabilization pathways. The findings of the present study emphasized that adopting management practices aimed at enhancing carbon inputs increases C sequestration in croplands, thus improving soil health and help in advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).