Biodiversity in Urban Green Space: A Bibliometric Review on the Current Research Field and Its Prospects

Understanding the development process of urban green space and biodiversity conservation strategies in urban green space is vital for sustainable urban development. However, a systematic review of the urban green space biodiversity research is still lacking. We have retrieved 3806 articles in WOS core journals and carried out the bibliometrics analysis through the three related search terms: urban, green space, and biodiversity. We found that: (1) the year 2009 was a changing point, and the number of articles have increased exponentially since 2009. The United States, China, Europe, and Australia are closely linked, and four research centers have formed; (2) all studies can be classified into three research themes: "Pattern of Urban Green Biodiversity", "Ecological Function of Urban Green Biodiversity", and "Sustainability of Urban Green Biodiversity"; (3) based on the evolution of keywords, this field is divided into the budding stage (1998-2012) and the development stage (2012-2021). The keywords in the budding stage focus on the diversity of different species, and the keywords in the development stage focus on the ecosystem services, biodiversity protection, and residents' satisfaction; (4) the future research focus may be in three aspects: studies on green space in the less urbanized area and urban-rural ecotone, the regulation mechanism and cultural services of urban green space, and the rational layout and management of urban green space. This study hopes to provide a reference for future research on urban green space biodiversity and promote the sustainable development of urban green space.