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Topic · Oceanography

Marine and coastal ecosystems

Marine and coastal ecosystems is a research topic within Oceanography. Science Explorer counts 63k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the complex interactions between marine biogeochemistry, ecosystem dynamics, and environmental factors such as eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and climate change. It explores the role of dissolved organic matter, nutrient limitation, and phytoplankton in the oceanic carbon cycle and highlights the impact of global warming on biological productivity and oxygen levels in the oceans.

  • Dissolved Organic Matter
  • Eutrophication
  • Harmful Algal Blooms
  • Oceanic Carbon Cycle
  • Phytoplankton
  • Global Warming
  • Nutrient Limitation
  • Biological Productivity
  • Oceanic Oxygen Levels
  • Climate Change
Research works
63k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
6.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
43% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Marine and coastal ecosystems

Which countries lead Marine and coastal ecosystems research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.5k and 1.7k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.5k works
  2. 2 United States 1.7k works
  3. 3 France 482 works
  4. 4 Germany 447 works
  5. 5 India 414 works
  6. 6 Japan 362 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 330 works
  8. 8 Russia 288 works
  9. 9 Canada 283 works
  10. 10 South Korea 276 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 43.2%United States: 20.9%France: 6.0%Germany: 5.6%6 others listed: 24.3%43%largest
China3,475 · 43.2%United States1,684 · 20.9%France482 · 6.0%Germany447 · 5.6%6 others listed1,953 · 24.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Marine and coastal ecosystems research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Marine and coastal ecosystems research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 512 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 217 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 196 works
  4. 4 Ocean University of ChinaChina 141 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 133 works
  6. 6 Ministry of Natural ResourcesChina 116 works
  7. 7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 99 works
  8. 8 Xiamen UniversityChina 99 works
  9. 9 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 87 works
  10. 10 Leibniz AssociationGermany 78 works

Who are the leading researchers in Marine and coastal ecosystems?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Marine and coastal ecosystems include Rob Knight, Peer Bork and Philippe Ciais.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 Peer Bork Germany 396k citations
  3. 3 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  4. 4 Donald G. Truhlar United States 230k citations
  5. 5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  6. 6 David Tilman United States 209k citations
  7. 7 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  8. 8 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Marine and coastal ecosystems?

The most cited paper in Marine and coastal ecosystems is "Photoperoxidation in isolated chloroplasts" (Robert L. Heath, Lester Packer, 1968), with 11,394 citations. Next come "Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems" (6,753) and "Primary Production of the Biosphere: Integrating Terrestrial and Oceanic Components" (6,546).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Photoperoxidation in isolated chloroplasts Robert L. Heath, Lester Packer · Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics Apr 1968 11,394
2 Spreading Dead Zones and Consequences for Marine Ecosystems Robert J. Díaz, Rutger Rosenberg · Science 14 Aug 2008 6,753
3 Primary Production of the Biosphere: Integrating Terrestrial and Oceanic Components Christopher B. Field, Michael J. Behrenfeld, James T. Randerson et al. · Science Open access 10 Jul 1998 6,546
4 Fluorescence Excitation−Emission Matrix Regional Integration to Quantify Spectra for Dissolved Organic Matter Wen Chen, Paul K. Westerhoff, Jerry A. Leenheer et al. · Environmental Science & Technology 15 Nov 2003 6,382
5 NONPOINT POLLUTION OF SURFACE WATERS WITH PHOSPHORUS AND NITROGEN Stephen R. Carpenter, N. F. Caraco, David L. Correll et al. · Ecological Applications Aug 1998 5,882
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Marine and coastal ecosystems research done?

The largest centres of Marine and coastal ecosystems research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Qingdao (China), Nanjing (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Warnemünde, Cambridge and Panjim.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 806 works
  2. 2 QingdaoChina 368 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 265 works
  4. 4 GuangzhouChina 215 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 191 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 167 works
  7. 7 XiamenChina 139 works
  8. 8 MoscowRussia 128 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 128 works
  10. 10 HangzhouChina 113 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. WarnemündeDE · 26.6 works204×
  2. CambridgeUS · 25.6 works158×
  3. PanjimIN · 37.8 works135×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Marine and coastal ecosystems than the world average.

See Marine and coastal ecosystems on the map

Where is the best place to study Marine and coastal ecosystems?

Among universities, judged by research, Beijing Normal University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Xiamen University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 15.91%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Beijing Normal Unive…Princeton UniversityUniversity of Chines…Xiamen University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Beijing Normal UniversityChina 64.420.0%5.9×44 +59.1%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 64.314.0%6.5×99 +8.0%
3Xiamen UniversityChina 63.910.1%12.2×99 +31.7%
4Princeton UniversityUnited States 63.116.9%4.8×20 +9.9%
5China University of GeosciencesChina 62.016.7%8.3×35 +93.0%
6Nankai UniversityChina 61.925.7%2.8×18 +229.4%
7Ocean University of ChinaChina 61.47.5%30.1×141 +31.4%
8College of MarinUnited States 60.311.2%80.5×20 +29.0%
9Hohai UniversityChina 60.112.1%10.2×56 +27.2%
10Xi'an University of Architecture and TechnologyChina 59.524.9%4.3×12 +68.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Marine and coastal ecosystems, country by country

Is Marine and coastal ecosystems research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Marine and coastal ecosystems.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Marine and coastal ecosystems as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.038% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%Marine and coastal ecosystems0.041% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Marine and coastal ecosystems over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Marine and coastal ecosystems9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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