[A critical review of progresses and perspectives on ecosystem services from 1997 to 2018]

Ecosystem services (ESs) are the research highlight and hot topic in ecology, geography and environmental economics. Based on the literature database on ecosystem services from Web of Science, Citespace, Carrot 2 and textual analysis were used to review the progresses of ESs research during 1997-2018. The results showed that ESs research institutions and its publications increased quickly in the latest 20 years. The main leading countries on ecosystem services research were the United States, UK, Germany, China and Australia, with the United States being the first in terms of literature volume and the influence. Although the research of ESs in China started relatively late, its development was rapid and the scientific research output increased significantly. Meanwhile, there was a huge gap to the international level, the quality and influence of literature should be improved, and the international cooperation and exchange need to be enhanced too. The hotspots and frontiers of ecosystem services mainly included evaluation methods and models, climate change, biodiversity, land use change, trade-off and synergy, scientific research for decision-making and management. The further research and practice trends include the mechanism of ESs, the indicators and methods for ESs evaluation, the spatiotemporal dynamics of ESs trade-offs and synergies and influencing factors, the coupling relationship between ecosystem services and human well-being, and the scientific research and social needs for sustainable development for decision-making and management.