A bibliometric analysis of the application of grassland ecological restoration technology

The degradation of grassland ecosystems seriously affects global ecological security, and it is therefore imperative to explore convenient and effective ecological restoration techniques. By utilizing the literature in the Web of Science core database and CNKI(China National Knowledge Infrastructure) from 2000 to 2018, this paper compared the research status and development trends of grassland restoration technology in China and abroad, and analyzed the implementation effects of different ecological restoration techniques in China. The results showed that research on grassland ecological restoration in China has an increasing trend, with the number of published papers ranking second in the world. At present, there are 20 different kinds of grassland ecological restoration techniques used in China, the main ones including resowing, ploughing, and reasonable grazing. In China, more articles have been published on using fencing than in other countries, but fewer on using fire, mowing, and weed control. In addition, there is a lack of studies on techniques using hay spreading and turf transfer, while the straw checkerboard barriers and grassland deratization are unique to China. In terms of implementation effect, all the ecological restoration technologies showed positive recovery effects on degraded grassland, but the results vary between different ecological restoration targets. This paper puts forward reasonable suggestions for further research on the restoration of degraded grassland in China, aiming to provide scientific direction for future grassland restoration in China.