Abstract: In recent years, the influence of plant roots on soil water movement has received extensive attention, and the related researches have developed rapidly and gradually become a hot spot in the interdisciplinary research of soil science, hydrology, water environment and water disasters. Starting with the effect of plant roots on soil water movement, this paper analyzed the current situation, hot areas and keywords of relevant research papers at home and abroad by collating 252 relevant literatures in the Core Collection of Web of Science and CNKI database from 2000 to 2022. Then, the research status and development trend of the influence of plant root characteristics on soil water movement were reviewed based on the two domestic hot spots (northwest arid area and southwest humid area). ① In the past 20 years, the number of relevant international and domestic research publications has shown a gradual increase trend, but the overall number of publications is still relatively small. Journal of Hydrology is the most popular international journal in this research field. ② There are differences in relevant research hotspots at home and abroad. The research focuses on methods and processes in international journals, while the keywords in Chinese journals tend to root characteristics. ③ The arid region in northwest China and the humid region in southwest China are the hot areas of related research in China. This paper analyzed and reviewed the mechanism of plant roots affecting soil water movement in the two regions. The innovation and development of research methods and techniques should be strengthened in the future.