Evaluation of the ecosystem service value of grassland based on knowledge domains

Grassland ecosystem services values assessment is the first step for humans to objectively recognize grassland ecology. It is of considerable importance to combine the hotspots and trends of grassland ecosystem services value for further theoretical exploration and ecological management. This study used the CNKI database and CiteSpace to analyze the scientific knowledge map. The publication trend, main researchers, highly cited achievements, research hotspots, and research trends in grassland ecosystem service value assessment from 1985 to 2022 were systematically summarized. The grassland ecosystem services value assessment has a long-time span, prominent research results, and has been receiving increasing attention. The most highly cited articles in the field have predominantly focused on evaluation methods, influencing factors, mechanisms, detection technology, and management systems, and have formed a relatively complete research chain. The research hotspots include the functional characteristics and laws of grassland ecosystems, human activities such as livestock grazing, grassland ecological challenges such as biological disasters and soil erosion, and grassland ecological function zoning. Based on this, the research trends include high-precision evaluation technology, a standardized and unified evaluation system, and exploration of the application of ecological restoration and management. However, the grassland ecosystem services value assessment still requires further work on cognition of the of conceptual frameworks and the overall assessment of “negative value”. Based on this, the grassland ecosystem services value assessment in the future can focus on the macro guidance theory and specific evaluation methods as the starting point. This means that the concept of sustainable development can be integrated into all aspects of evaluation. This can support the development of research protocols as they continue to move closer to the “ecological standard”.