Research Trends of Soil Mercury Pollution Based on the Bibliometric Analysis of 2014–2024 SCI Papers

In recent years, soil mercury pollution has become a global environmental problem, especially in countries with rapid development of industry like China. To analyze the current status of published papers and research hotspots in the field of soil mercury pollution, this review statistically analyzed and visualized the SCI papers in this field from 2014 to 2024 using bibliometric and CiteSpace knowledge graph analysis. The results show that the number of SCI papers in the field of global soil mercury pollution is on the rise, covering 76 disciplines, of which ecological and environmental science accounts for more than half. The main countries of publication are China, the United States, Canada, Spain and India, and the cooperation network has gradually changed from scattered to close. China has become a core research country, and the cooperation with other countries has been continuously enhanced. Based on keyword analysis, global research on soil mercury pollution initially focused on the accumulation and transport mechanisms of mercury, then shifted to the forms, pollution sources and ecological impacts of mercury in the medium term and has recently concentrated on the behaviors and ecosystem interactions of mercury in water bodies. Moreover, significantly influenced by geography and environment, research of China in this field has initially concentrated on mercury release and contamination from mining activities, subsequently shifted to aquatic bioaccumulation and impacts on water bodies, and has recently emphasized ecological risk assessment and remediation.