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Topic · Soil Science

Soil and Environmental Studies

Soil and Environmental Studies is a research topic within Soil Science. Science Explorer counts 11k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the evolution of soils in anthropogenic landscapes, including the study of paleosols, microbial communities, and environmental reconstruction. It explores the impact of agriculture, climate dynamics, and desertification on soil evolution and Holocene climate changes.

  • Soil Evolution
  • Paleosols
  • Environmental Reconstruction
  • Microbial Communities
  • Climate Dynamics
  • Agricultural Impact
  • Geoarchaeology
  • Desertification
  • Holocene Climate
  • Ecosystem Responses
Research works
11k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+2%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Russia
60% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil and Environmental Studies

Which countries lead Soil and Environmental Studies research?

By volume, Russia and Ukraine publish the most (1.9k and 281 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russia 1.9k works
  2. 2 Ukraine 281 works
  3. 3 China 189 works
  4. 4 Kazakhstan 173 works
  5. 5 United States 172 works
  6. 6 Uzbekistan 158 works
  7. 7 Azerbaijan 109 works
  8. 8 Nigeria 94 works
  9. 9 Iraq 54 works
  10. 10 Georgia 51 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.

Russia: 60.1%Ukraine: 8.7%China: 5.9%Kazakhstan: 5.4%6 others listed: 19.8%60%largest
Russia1,933 · 60.1%Ukraine281 · 8.7%China189 · 5.9%Kazakhstan173 · 5.4%6 others listed638 · 19.8%

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

Which institutions lead Soil and Environmental Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Russian Academy of Sciences publishes the most Soil and Environmental Studies research, followed by Lomonosov Moscow State University and Weatherford College.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 648 works
  2. 2 Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 105 works
  3. 3 Weatherford CollegeUnited States 63 works
  4. 4 Voronezh State University of Forestry and TechnologiesRussia 55 works
  5. 5 National Academy of Sciences of UkraineUkraine 52 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 50 works
  7. 7 Federal Scientific Center for Agroecology, Integrated Land Reclamation and Protective AfforestationRussia 45 works
  8. 8 Moscow State UniversityTajikistan 36 works
  9. 9 Voronezh State UniversityRussia 34 works
  10. 10 Southern Federal UniversityRussia 33 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil and Environmental Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soil and Environmental Studies include Rattan Lal, Pete Smith and Yong‐Guan Zhu.

  1. 1 Rattan Lal United States 126k citations
  2. 2 Pete Smith United Kingdom 121k citations
  3. 3 Yong‐Guan Zhu China 107k citations
  4. 4 Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté Netherlands 101k citations
  5. 5 Yakov V. Kuzyakov Germany 100k citations
  6. 6 Johannes C. Lehmann United States 98k 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 Soil and Environmental Studies?

The most cited paper in Soil and Environmental Studies is "A comparative ethnobotany of Khevsureti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Tusheti, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi, Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo), Caucasus" (Rainer Willi Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Shalva Sikharulidze et al., 2016), with 1,650 citations. Next come "Spectral Reflectance Changes Associated with Autumn Senescence of Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Acer platanoides L. Leaves. Spectral Features and Relation to Chlorophyll Estimation" (1,464) and "ON THE RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF BIRD SPECIES" (1,200).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A comparative ethnobotany of Khevsureti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Tusheti, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi, Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo), Caucasus Rainer Willi Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Shalva Sikharulidze et al. · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine Open access 21 Sep 2016 1,650
2 Spectral Reflectance Changes Associated with Autumn Senescence of Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Acer platanoides L. Leaves. Spectral Features and Relation to Chlorophyll Estimation Anatoly A. Gitelson, Mark N. Merzlyak · Journal of Plant Physiology Mar 1994 1,464
3 ON THE RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF BIRD SPECIES Robert H. MacArthur · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 15 Mar 1957 1,200
4 Humic Substances in Soil, Sediment, and Water. Geochemistry, Isolation, and Characterization Charles A. Fewson · Geoderma Dec 1986 798
5 Restoration of mined lands—using natural processes Anthony David Bradshaw · Ecological Engineering Aug 1997 705
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil and Environmental Studies research done?

The largest centres of Soil and Environmental Studies research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Voronezh (Russia), Kyiv (Ukraine) and Saint Petersburg (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Ulan-Ude and Pushchino.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MoscowRussia 478 works
  2. 2 VoronezhRussia 106 works
  3. 3 KyivUkraine 93 works
  4. 4 Saint PetersburgRussia 85 works
  5. 5 AlmatyKazakhstan 82 works
  6. 6 TashkentUzbekistan 79 works
  7. 7 BakuAzerbaijan 77 works
  8. 8 NovosibirskRussia 75 works
  9. 9 IrkutskRussia 75 works
  10. 10 VolgogradRussia 67 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Ulan-UdeRU · 25.1 works119×
  2. PushchinoRU · 29.2 works108×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soil and Environmental Studies than the world average.

See Soil and Environmental Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Soil and Environmental Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Weatherford College, Southern Federal University and Al-Farabi Kazakh National 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 17.15%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Al-Farabi Kazakh Nat…Southern Federal Uni…Weatherford CollegeLomonosov Moscow Sta…
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
1Weatherford CollegeUnited States 74.718.8%14.3×63 +52.8%
2Southern Federal UniversityRussia 74.420.7%56.1×33 +7.4%
3Al-Farabi Kazakh National UniversityKazakhstan 73.427.4%32.9×20 +35.7%
4Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityRussia 71.010.3%37.3×105 +1.3%
5Belgorod National Research UniversityRussia 63.613.4%83.5×25 +16.8%
6St Petersburg UniversityRussia 58.816.7%17.0×27 -2.4%
7Samarkand State University named after Sharof RashidovUzbekistan 57.418.2%35.9×13 +147.5%
8Bukhara State UniversityUzbekistan 56.520.1%43.0×10 +39.3%
9University of TyumenRussia 55.411.8%79.0×19 +40.1%
10Kazakh National Agrarian Research UniversityKazakhstan 53.914.1%219.5×16 +132.6%

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 Soil and Environmental Studies, country by country

Is Soil and Environmental Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Soil and Environmental Studies.

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 Soil and Environmental Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.014% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Soil and Environmental Studies0.015% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil and Environmental Studies 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%Soil and Environmental Studies9.9% 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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