Research on Fishery Resource Assessment and Sustainable Utilization (FRASU) during 1990–2020: A bibliometric review

• Main Authors: Peng Xu, Mujiao Xie, Weiguo Zhou, Anning Suo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Global Ecology and Conservation
• Subjects: Fishery resource assessment and sustainable utilization (FRASU); Bibliometric; Research trends; Future directions; Key areas; Food web
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989421002705

Fishery resource assessment and sustainable utilization (FRASU) is a topic of global concern. Although fishery resources are highly profitable, these are linked to environmental and socio-economic issues. In the context of increasing demand for fishery sustainability, fishery resource assessment is essential to support scientific fishery resource management. Bibliometric techniques and the Web of Science (WOS) database from 1990 to 2020 were employed to analyse the journals, authors, institutions, countries, cited references, and keywords using the CiteSpace (5.3. R11) software and standard bibliometric indicators. A quantitative review of global research related to FRASU identified recent important research topics and allowed prediction of research trends, as well as confirmed that it is an increasing area of concern. A total of 1631 publications were retrieved from 1990 to 2020, and the most active journals, countries, authors and institutions in the field were identified. 'Fisheries Research', 'Ocean Coastal Management' and 'ICES Journal of Marine Science' are the main journals that publish FRASU research. European and North American countries are the main publishers in this field, while the contribution of Asian countries has gradually increased. It is expected that China, Japan, Brazil, and India will make increasingly significant contributions to this field. Groupers, size, catch-per-unit-effort and genetic diversity are important core research areas in this field. Policy, maximum sustainable yield, small scale fisheries, ecosystem management and sustainability frameworks are identified as potential emerging research areas. Furthermore, five key areas of current research trends on FRASU were identified: problems with fishery resource assessment, impact of changes in marine biodiversity on ecosystem services, influence of fishery resource changes on the structure of food webs, ecosystem-based fishery management, and frameworks for sustainable development of fishery resources. The findings from this bibliometric study provide insight into in the growth of research publications and changes in hot areas in the field of FRASU over the past 30 years, including global trends in emerging areas of research.