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Topic · Ecology

Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology is a research topic within Ecology. Science Explorer counts 61k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the diversity, biogeography, and ecological interactions of marine microbial communities, including bacteria and archaea. It investigates the rare biosphere, community assembly processes, and the roles of phytoplankton in shaping microbial landscapes. The papers also delve into the functional implications of microbial community structures and the genomic basis of trophic strategies in marine bacteria.

  • Marine Microbes
  • Microbial Biogeography
  • Bacterial Diversity
  • Archaeal Communities
  • Ocean Microbiome
  • Community Assembly
  • Rare Biosphere
  • Phytoplankton Interactions
  • Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea
  • Microbial Ecology
Research works
61k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
49% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Which countries lead Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (5.3k and 1.9k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.3k works
  2. 2 United States 1.9k works
  3. 3 India 743 works
  4. 4 Germany 529 works
  5. 5 France 454 works
  6. 6 Japan 431 works
  7. 7 Russia 420 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 342 works
  9. 9 South Korea 304 works
  10. 10 Spain 288 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: 49.5%United States: 17.6%India: 7.0%Germany: 5.0%6 others listed: 21.0%49%largest
China5,273 · 49.5%United States1,874 · 17.6%India743 · 7.0%Germany529 · 5.0%6 others listed2,240 · 21.0%

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

Which institutions lead Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 700 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 262 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 183 works
  4. 4 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 166 works
  5. 5 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 137 works
  6. 6 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 102 works
  7. 7 Ocean University of ChinaChina 92 works
  8. 8 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 84 works
  9. 9 Hohai UniversityChina 76 works
  10. 10 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural AffairsChina 72 works

Who are the leading researchers in Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology include Rob Knight, Richard M. Durbin and Peer Bork.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 Richard M. Durbin United Kingdom 410k citations
  3. 3 Peer Bork Germany 396k citations
  4. 4 Bert Vogelstein United States 373k citations
  5. 5 Steven L. Salzberg United States 372k citations
  6. 6 Elaine R. Mardis United States 346k citations
  7. 7 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  8. 8 Matthias Mann Germany 308k citations
  9. 9 Sudhir Kumar United States 295k citations
  10. 10 Richard A. Gibbs United States 292k 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 Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology?

The most cited paper in Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology is "MEGA7: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 7.0 for Bigger Datasets" (Sudhir Kumar, Glen Stecher, Koichiro Tamura, 2016), with 46,273 citations. Next come "QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data" (36,341) and "The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools" (35,094).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 MEGA7: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Version 7.0 for Bigger Datasets Sudhir Kumar, Glen Stecher, Koichiro Tamura · Molecular Biology and Evolution Open access 22 Mar 2016 46,273
2 QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data J. Gregory Caporaso et al. · Nature Methods Open access 11 Apr 2010 36,341
3 The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools Christian Quast, Elmar Pruesse, Pelin Yilmaz et al. · Nucleic Acids Research Open access 27 Nov 2012 35,094
4 SPAdes: A New Genome Assembly Algorithm and Its Applications to Single-Cell Sequencing Anton Bankevich, Sergey Nurk, Dmitry Antipov et al. · Journal of Computational Biology Open access 16 Apr 2012 27,967
5 Introducing mothur: Open-Source, Platform-Independent, Community-Supported Software for Describing and Comparing Microbial Communities Patrick D. Schloss, Sarah L. Westcott, Thomas Ryabin et al. · Applied and Environmental Microbiology Open access 3 Oct 2009 22,073
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research done?

The largest centres of Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Qingdao (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kentfield.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.2k works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 347 works
  3. 3 QingdaoChina 267 works
  4. 4 GuangzhouChina 264 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 191 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 177 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 170 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 163 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 142 works
  10. 10 XiamenChina 117 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KentfieldUS · 22.9 works61×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology than the world average.

See Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology on the map

Where is the best place to study Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology?

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

0%20%40%mean 19.84%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…Peking UniversityUniversity of Chines…Hohai 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.

Citation 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
1Northwest A&F UniversityChina 71.825.2%9.9×46 +36.7%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 69.716.1%6.9×137 +17.2%
3Peking UniversityChina 63.021.4%2.0×49 +41.5%
4Hohai UniversityChina 61.412.1%10.7×76 +93.5%
5Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 60.517.6%10.1×47 +40.1%
6China Agricultural UniversityChina 60.322.1%5.9×39 +119.2%
7Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesSweden 59.614.3%11.8×22 +51.4%
8Chongqing University of TechnologyChina 58.528.7%3.6×9 +205.1%
9Beijing University of TechnologyChina 57.519.7%3.7×31 +124.5%
10ETH ZurichSwitzerland 57.421.2%3.4×29 -12.0%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology, country by country

Is Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022. The fastest-growing topics are Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology.

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 Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.056% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology0.054% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology 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%Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology9.9% 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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