Comparative bibliometric insights into Chinese and international research on Suaeda over 20 years

Suaeda is a halophytic genus widely distributed in coastal salt marshes and inland saline-alkaline habitats, and it has attracted increasing attention because of its ecological importance and resource utilization potential. Among its members, S.glauca is one of the representative and most extensively studied species in China. In recent years, research on Suaeda has expanded steadily, yet existing studies are mostly confined to specific topics and still lack a systematic comparison between Chinese-language and international English-language scholarship.

To address this gap, this study applies CiteSpace-based bibliometric methods to comparatively analyze Suaeda-related literature in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure and the Web of Science Core Collection from 2005 to 2025. Publication trends, country and institutional collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence, and temporal evolution were examined to reveal the knowledge structure, research hotspots, and developmental trajectories of the field.

The annual number of publications on Suaeda has generally increased over the past two decades, although periodic fluctuations remain evident. China ranks first in both publication output and betweenness centrality, indicating its prominent position in this research area. In terms of thematic focus, Chinese-language studies place greater emphasis on the practical application of Suaeda in saline-alkaline land improvement and ecological restoration, whereas international English-language studies pay more attention to physiological stress-tolerance mechanisms and ecosystem-level functions.

Chinese-language research has gone through a development path from habitat investigation and resource census, to ecological restoration and saline-alkali land management, and then to more diversified functional and technological applications; and international research starts from ecological responses and population performance, gradually delving into physiological mechanisms, rhizosphere processes and multi-scale regulation. The cutting-edge hotspots in recent years include germplasm resource evaluation, remote sensing applications, plant-soil feedback, cell wall processes, and rhizosphere mediated ecological interactions, etc. Species nomenclatural confusion has caused inconsistent and unrepeatable results in salt tolerance physiology and restoration practices. Future research should strengthen taxonomic accuracy, deepen the integration of applied studies and mechanistic investigations, and promote broader international collaboration. This study provides a foundation for integrating applied saline-alkali land restoration with mechanistic stress physiology research.