The scientific research on rhodolith beds: A review through bibliometric network analysis

Rhodolith beds are benthic biogenic calcareous habitats formed by the aggregation of unattached, non-geniculate coralline algae. They have a worldwide distribution and, due to their 3D structural complexity and functioning, they provide several ecosystem services (i.e., provisioning and regulating). Recently, their importance and vulnerability have been internationally recognized by international policy and scientific research, and more attention has been drawn to their investigation and conservation. In this study, we conducted a systematic review integrated with a bibliometric analysis of the academic literature related to rhodolith beds. The analysis was based on published literature data over the period 1965-2022, and allowed the generation of maps based on network data displaying the relationships among countries, researchers, keywords, and scientific journals. A total of 853 publications were identified, revealing that scientific research on rhodolith beds is still relatively limited if compared to other coastal vegetated habitats (e.g., seagrass beds, kelp forests), although it has increased over time. Results showed that the scientific documents were published by 77 countries, 2255 researchers, and 279 journals. USA led the research production in this field with 159 documents and 4802 citations, and Amado-Filho was the most productive author with 36 documents and 1126 citations. The co-occurrence network map of keywords showed that the main research fields linked to rhodolith beds are geology, paleontology, algal tax-onomy, community ecology, conservation, and physiology. The results also highlighted that most focus on the subject is recently shifting from geological and paleontological aspects to molecular taxonomic, conservation, and ecophysiological ones, while studies on the current topics of ecosystem services and carbon sequestration are still very limited.