Mangrove sediments as carbon sinks: a global analysis of research patterns, trends and future directions

Mangrove sediments are widely recognized as an important component of long-term carbon storage in coastal ecosystems. However, the structure, evolution, and thematic organization of the scientific literature addressing mangrove sediment carbon have not yet been clearly characterized at the global scale. This study addresses this gap by providing a scientometric analysis of the literature on mangrove sediments as carbon sinks. Based on 4,798 articles retrieved from the Scopus database, the analysis characterizes publication patterns, major research contributors, and the thematic and collaborative structure of the field. The results indicate an exponential increase in publications across the observed period (R² = 0.9776). A third-order polynomial regression was used exclusively for exploratory projection purposes, indicating a possible 6.7-fold increase in research output over the next two decades (R² = 0.9998). The prominence of the United States and China reflects the consolidation of institutional research capacity and sustained growth in funding and policy support. Trend mapping reveals a historical progression of the field from process-level studies of early diagenesis, through the integration of environmental data, toward a holistic framework in which organic matter degradation is explicitly linked to blue carbon preservation, loss, and dynamics at the ecosystem scale. Overall, this study provides a quantitative synthesis of the evolution and structure of research on mangrove sediment carbon, providing a robust framework to guide future research and inform evidence-based environmental policy.