Abstract:
In recent years, global atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been intensifying and has a significant impact on the soil carbon (C) cycle. A series of studies have been conducted on the impact of N deposition on the soil C cycle, however, there are still great differences in the understanding of the response mechanism and the extent of the impact. In this paper, we used CiteSpace literature visualization software to data-mining 2414 papers on N deposition on soil C cycle included in the Web of Science core database from 1991 to 2021, and visualize them in terms of countries, institutions, authors, keywords, and emergent words to elucidate the research hotspots and frontiers in this field. The results showed that the research on the influence of atmospheric N deposition on the soil C cycle was still highly influential in the United States, but China’s research in this field was continuing to gain momentum, with the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences having the largest number of publications in this field, while the literature covered a wide range of directions and was rich in content. In addition, the current research on the influence of N deposition on the soil C cycle is mainly focused on three themes: "Response of soil ecological environment to N deposition", "Effect of N deposition on soil C pool", and "Effect of N deposition on coupling cycle of C and N in soil". The current research frontier on the effects of N deposition on the soil C cycle is more focused on the response mechanisms, N use efficiency, and phosphorus limitation.