Soil Salinity and Climate Change: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on the Scopus Database

Purpose: This study aims to identify knowledge gaps and research trends in soil salinity and climate change by conducting a bibliometric analysis of related publications from 1962 to 2023 in the Scopus database. Understanding these patterns is essential to guide future research and policy, given the growing global threat of salinisation to agriculture and food security.
Research Method: This study used Scopus publications on climate change due to soil salinity. This research was conducted between March and December 2023, with a Scopus search performed on July 30, 2023. Several programs are available to analyse bibliometric data; this research used Biblioshiny (R program-based software) and VOSviewer to extract all information completely from the abundant data gathered. These two programs have been used for data analysis in papers that were not commonly used in previous publications.
Findings and Values: This bibliometric analysis identified several gaps in the literature on soil salinity and climate change research, including a lack of research on situation-based adaptation strategies for salinity reduction due to global climate change, no specifically designed draining system to control salinity in the soil, creating low-cost instruments for real-time tracking of soil moisture, fertiliser and salt levels, and agricultural stress, and sophisticated models that accurately simulate the complex relationships between physical, chemical, and biological processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. The article is the first study to analyse the published works in the field of climate change due to soil salinity since the first paper was published in 1962.