research paper topics biodiversity

133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples

🔝 top-10 biodiversity topics for presentation, 🏆 best biodiversity project topics, 💡 most interesting biodiversity assignment topics, 📌 simple & easy biodiversity related topics, 👍 good biodiversity title ideas, ❓ biodiversity research topics.

Biodiversity loss.
Global biodiversity conservation.
The Amazon rainforest.
Animal ecology research.
Sub Saharan Africa.
Marine biodiversity.
Threats to ecosystems.
Plant ecology.
Importance of environmental conservation.
Evolution of animal species.
Biology Lab Report: Biodiversity Study of Lichens As a consequence of these results, the variety of foods found in forest flora that include lichens may be linked to varying optimum conditions for establishment and development.
Habitat Destruction and Biodiversity Extinctions The instance of extinction is by and large regarded as the demise of the very last character of the genus. Habitat obliteration has played a major part in wiping out of species, and it is […]
Biodiversity Benefits for Ecology This variation of species in the ecosystem is a very important concept and factor that indeed is the basis for sustaining life on our planet. Moreover, the most important supporter of life, which is soil […]
How Biodiversity Is Threatened by Human Activity Most of the marine biodiversity is found in the tropics, especially coral reefs that support the growth of organisms. Overexploitation in the oceans is caused by overfishing and fishing practices that cause destruction of biodiversity.
Biodiversity Conservation: Tropical Rainforest The forest is not a threat to many species and that, therefore, helps in showing that conserving this forest will be of great benefit to many species. The disadvantage of conserving the Mangrove Forest is […]
Conserving Biodiversity: The Loggerhead Turtle The loggerhead sea turtle is the species of oceanic turtle which is spread all over the world and belongs to the Cheloniidae family.
Biodiversity Hotspots and Environmental Ethics The magnitude of the problem of losing biodiversity hotspots is too great, to the extend of extinction of various species from the face of the earth.
Marine Biodiversity Conservation and Impure Public Goods The fact that the issue concerning the global marine biodiversity and the effects that impure public goods may possibly have on these rates can lead to the development of a range of externalities that should […]
Biodiversity Hotspots: The Philippines The International Conservation has classified the Philippines as one of the biodiversity hotspots in the world. Additionally, the country is said to be one of the areas that are endangered in the world.
The Importance of Biodiversity in Ecosystem The most urgent problem right now is to maintain the level of biodiversity in this world but it has to begin with a more in-depth understanding of how different species of flora and fauna can […]
Aspects, Importance and Issues of Biodiversity Genetic diversity is a term used to refer to the dissimilitude of organisms of the same species. Species diversity is used to refer to dissimilitude of organisms in a given region.
Introduced Species and Biodiversity Rhymer and Simberloff explain that the seriousness of the phenomenon may not be very evident from direct observation of the morphological traits of the species.
Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions It is estimated that the number of species that have become extinct is greater than the number of species that are currently found on earth.
Biodiversity and Food Production This paper will analyze the importance of biodiversity in food production and the implications for human existence. Edible organisms are few as compared to the total number of organisms in the ecosystem.
Climate Change’s Negative Impact on Biodiversity This essay’s primary objective is to trace and evaluate the impact of climate change on biological diversity through the lens of transformations in the marine and forest ecosystems and evaluation of the agricultural sector both […]
Essentials of Biodiversity At the same time, the knowledge and a more informed understanding of the whole concept of biodiversity gives us the power to intervene in the event that we are faced by the loss of biodiversity, […]
Biodiversity: Aspects Within the Sphere of Biology Finally, living objects consist of cells, which are the basic units of their function and structure. The viruses’ structure depends on which nucleic acid is included, which denotes that there are DNA and RNA viruses.
Coral Reef and Biodiversity in Ecosystems Coral reefs are formed only in the tropical zone of the ocean; the temperature limits their life – are from +18 to +29oS, and at the slightest deviation from the boundaries of the coral die.
Biodiversity and the Health of Ecosystems Various opinions are revealed concerning biodiversity, including the human impact, reversal of biodiversity loss, the impact of overpopulation, the future of biodiversity, and the rate of extinction.
Wild Crops and Biodiversity Threats However, out of millions of existing types of wild crop cultures, the vast majority have been abandoned and eradicated, as the agricultural companies placed major emphasis on the breeding of domesticated cultures that are easy […]
Biodiversity, Interdependency: Threatened and Endhangered Species In the above table, humans rely on bees to facilitate pollination among food crops and use their honey as food. Concurrently, lichens break down rocks to provide nutrient-rich soil in the relationship.
Invasive Processes’ Impact on Ecosystem’s Biodiversity If the invasive ones prove to be more adaptive, this will bring about the oppression of the native species and radical changes in the ecosystem.
Biodiversity and Dynamics of Mountainous Area Near the House It should be emphasized that the term ecosystem used in this paper is considered a natural community characterized by a constant cycle of energy and resources, the presence of consumers, producers, and decomposers, as well […]
National Biodiversity Strategy By this decision, the UN seeks to draw the attention of the world community and the leaders of all countries to the protection and rational use of natural resources.
Rewilding Our Cities: Beauty, Biodiversity and the Biophilic Cities Movement What is the source of your news item? The Guardian.
Restoring the Everglades Wetlands: Biodiversity The Act lays out the functions and roles of the Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District in restoration of the Everglades.
Biodiversity: Importance and Benefits This is due to the fact that man is evolving from the tendency of valuing long term benefits to a tendency of valuing short terms benefits.
A Benchmarking Biodiversity Survey of the Inter-Tidal Zone at Goat Island Bay, Leigh Marine Laboratory Within each quadrant, the common species were counted or, in the case of seaweed and moss, proliferation estimated as a percentage of the quadrant occupied.
Natural Selection and Biodiversity These are featured by the ways in which the inhabiting organisms adapt to them and it is the existence of these organisms on which the ecosystems depend and therefore it is evident that this diversity […]
Loss of Biodiversity in the Amazon Ecosystem The growth of the human population and the expansion of global economies have contributed to the significant loss of biodiversity despite the initial belief that the increase of resources can halt the adverse consequences of […]
Biodiversity: American Museum of Natural History While staying at the museum, I took a chance to visit the Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life and the Hall of Reptiles and Amphibians.
Urban Plants’ Role in Insects’ Biodiversity The plants provide food, shelter and promote the defensive mechanisms of the insects. The observation was also an instrumental method that was used to assess the behavior and the existence of insects in relation to […]
Brazilian Amazonia: Biodiversity and Deforestation Secondly, the mayor persuaded the people to stop deforestation to save the Amazon. Additionally, deforestation leads to displacement of indigenous people living in the Amazonia.
Defining and Measuring Biodiversity Biodiversity is measured in terms of attributes that explore the quality of nature; richness and evenness of the living organisms within an ecological niche.
Biodiversity, Its Importance and Benefits Apart from that, the paper is going to speculate on the most and least diverse species in the local area. The biodiversity can be measured in terms of the number of different species in the […]
Biodiversity, Its Evolutionary and Genetic Reasons The occurrence of natural selection is hinged on the hypothesis that offspring inherit their characteristics from their parents in the form of genes and that members of any particular population must have some inconsiderable disparity […]
Biodiversity Hotspots: Evaluation and Analysis The region also boasts with the endangered freshwater turtle species, which are under a threat of extinction due to over-harvesting and destroyed habitat.
Natural Sciences: Biodiversity and Human Civilisation The author in conjunction with a team of other researchers used a modelling study to illustrate the fact approximately 2 percent of global energy is currently being deployed in the generation of wind and solar […]
How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity The disturbance of the ecosystem has some effects on the dynamics of vectors and infectious diseases. Change of climate is a contributing factor in the emergence of new species and infectious diseases.
Biodiversity and Business Risk In conclusion, biodiversity risk affects businesses since the loss of biodiversity leads to: coastal flooding, desertification and food insecurity, all of which have impacts on business organizations.
Measurement of Biodiversity It is the “sum total of all biotic variation from the level of genes to ecosystems” according to Andy Purvus and Andy Hector in their article entitled “Getting the Measure of Diversity” which appeared in […]
Ecosystems: Biodiversity and Habitat Loss The review of the topic shows that the relationship between urban developmental patterns and the dynamics of ecosystem are concepts that are still not clearly understood in the scholarly world as well as in general.
When Human Diet Costs Too Much: Biodiversity as the Ultimate Answer to the Global Problems Because of the unreasonable use of the natural resources, environmental pollution and inadequate protection, people have led a number of species to extinction; moreover, due to the increasing rates of consumerist approach towards the food […]
The Impact of Burmese Pythons on Florida’s Native Biodiversity Scientists from the South Florida Natural Resource Center, the Smithsonian institute and the University of Florida have undertaken studies to assess the predation behavior of the Burmese pythons on birds in the area.
Threat to Biodiversity Is Just as Important as Climate Change This paper shall articulate the truth of this statement by demonstrating that threats to biodiversity pose significant threat to the sustainability of human life on earth and are therefore the protection of biodiversity is as […]
Cold Water Coral Ecosystems and Their Biodiversity: A Review of Their Economic and Social Value
Benchmarking DNA Metabarcoding for Biodiversity-Based Monitoring and Assessment
Prospects for Integrating Disturbances, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Using Microbial Systems
Enterprising Nature: Economics, Markets, and Finance in Global Biodiversity Politics
Institutional Economics and the Behaviour of Conservation Organizations: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation
Fisheries, Fish Pollution and Biodiversity: Choice Experiments With Fishermen, Traders and Consumers
Last Stand: Protected Areas and the Defense of Tropical Biodiversity
Hardwiring Green: How Banks Account For Biodiversity Risks and Opportunities
Governance Criteria for Effective Transboundary Biodiversity Conservation
Marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas for Penguins in Antarctica: Targets for Conservation Action
Ecological and Economic Assessment of Forests Biodiversity: Formation of Theoretical and Methodological Instruments
Environment and Biodiversity Impacts of Organic and Conventional Agriculture
Food From the Water: How the Fish Production Revolution Affects Aquatic Biodiversity and Food Security
Biodiversity and World Food Security: Nourishing the Planet and Its People
Climate Change and Energy Economics: Key Indicators and Approaches to Measuring Biodiversity
Conflicts Between Biodiversity and Carbon Sequestration Programs: Economic and Legal Implications
Models for Sample Selection Bias in Contingent Valuation: Application to Forest Biodiversity
Optimal Land Conversion and Growth With Uncertain Biodiversity Costs
Internalizing Global Externalities From Biodiversity: Protected Areas and Multilateral Mechanisms of Transfer
Combining Internal and External Motivations in Multi-Actor Governance Arrangements for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Balancing State and Volunteer Investment in Biodiversity Monitoring for the Implementation of CBD Indicators
Differences and Similarities Between Ecological and Economic Models for Biodiversity Conservation
Globalization and the Connection of Remote Communities: Household Effects and Their Biodiversity Implications
Shaded Coffee and Cocoa – Double Dividend for Biodiversity and Small-Scale Farmers
Spatial Priorities for Marine Biodiversity Conservation in the Coral Triangle
One World, One Experiment: Addressing the Biodiversity and Economics Conflict
Alternative Targets and Economic Efficiency of Selecting Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation in Boreal Forest
Analysing Multi Level Water and Biodiversity Governance in Their Context
Agricultural Biotechnology: Productivity, Biodiversity, and Intellectual Property Rights
Renewable Energy and Biodiversity: Implications for Transitioning to a Green Economy
Agricultural Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of Major Farming Systems
Integrated Land Use Modelling of Agri-Environmental Measures to Maintain Biodiversity at Landscape Level
Changing Business Perceptions Regarding Biodiversity: From Impact Mitigation Towards New Strategies and Practices
Forest Biodiversity and Timber Extraction: An Analysis of the Interaction of Market and Non-market Mechanisms
Poverty and Biodiversity: Measuring the Overlap of Human Poverty and the Biodiversity Hotspots
Protecting Agro-Biodiversity by Promoting Rural Livelihoods
Maintaining Biodiversity and Environmental Sustainability
Landscape, Legal, and Biodiversity Threats That Windows Pose to Birds: A Review of an Important Conservation Issue
Variable Mating Behaviors and the Maintenance of Tropical Biodiversity
Species Preservation and Biodiversity Value: A Real Options Approach
What Is Being Done to Preserve Biodiversity and Its Hotspots?
How Are Argentina and Chile Facing Shared Biodiversity Loss?
Are Diverse Ecosystems More Valuable?
How Can Biodiversity Loss Be Prevented?
Can Payments for Watershed Services Help Save Biodiversity?
How Can Business Reduce Impacts on the World’s Biodiversity?
Are National Biodiversity Strategies Appropriate for Building Responsibilities for Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Policy Sectors?
How Does Agriculture Effect Biodiversity?
Are There Income Effects on Global Willingness to Pay For Biodiversity Conservation?
How Does the Economic Risk Aversion Affect Biodiversity?
What Are the Threats of Biodiversity?
How Has the Increased Usage of Synthetic Pesticides Impacted Biodiversity?
What Does Drive Biodiversity Conservation Effort in the Developing World?
How Does the Plantation Affect Biodiversity?
What Does Drive Long-Run Biodiversity Change?
How Does the United Nations Deal With Biodiversity?
What Factors Affect Biodiversity?
How Are Timber Harvesting and Biodiversity Managed in Uneven-Aged Forests?
When Should Biodiversity Tenders Contract on Outcomes?
Who Cares About Biodiversity?
Why Can Financial Incentives Destroy Economically Valuable Biodiversity in Ethiopia?
What Factors Affect an Area’s Biodiversity?
In What Ways Is Biodiversity Economically Valuable?
Which Human Activities Threaten Biodiversity?
How Can Biodiversity Be Protected?
In What Ways Is Biodiversity Ecologically Value?
In Which Countries Is Biodiversity Economically Valuable?
Does Species Diversity Follow Any Patterns?
How Is Biodiversity Measured?
What Is a Biodiversity Hotspot?
Ecosystem Essay Topics
Climate Change Titles
Environment Research Topics
Disaster Essay Titles
Evolution Topics
Glaciers Topics
Hunting Questions
Global Warming Essay Titles
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A-Z Publications

Annual Review of Environment and Resources

Volume 47, 2022, review article, open access, biodiversity: concepts, patterns, trends, and perspectives.

Sandra Díaz 1,2 , and Yadvinder Malhi 3
View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), Córdoba, Argentina; email: [email protected] 2 Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina 3 Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]
Vol. 47:31-63 (Volume publication date October 2022) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-120120-054300
First published as a Review in Advance on September 02, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by Annual Reviews. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information

Biodiversity, a term now widely employed in science, policy, and wider society, has a burgeoning associated literature. We synthesize aspects of this literature, focusing on several key concepts, debates, patterns, trends, and drivers. We review the history of the term and the multiple dimensions and values of biodiversity, and we explore what is known and not known about global patterns of biodiversity. We then review changes in biodiversity from early human times to the modern era, examining rates of extinction and direct drivers of biodiversity change and also highlighting some less-well-studied drivers. Finally, we turn attention to the indirect drivers of global biodiversity loss, notably humanity's increasing global consumption footprint, and explore what might be required to reverse the ongoing decline in the fabric of life on Earth.

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Nature’s Secrets: Top 200 Ecology Research Topics

Welcome to the world of Ecology, where the study of nature evolves like an interesting story. Ecology helps us solve the complex relationships between living organisms and their environments. In this fascinating journey, we will see ecology research topics that reveal the secrets of ecosystems, biodiversity, and the delicate balance of nature.

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Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and their environment. It explores relationships between plants, animals, and their surroundings, helping us understand how nature works and how different elements in ecosystems connect.

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Ecology studies the relationships between living things and their environment. Here are six topics studied in ecology:

Ecosystems: Examining how living organisms, like plants and animals, interact with each other and their non living surroundings, such as soil, water, and air.
Biodiversity: Analyzing the variety of life in different ecosystems, including the number and types of species present.
Population Dynamics: Understanding how the numbers of individuals in a species change over time, including factors like birth rates, death rates, and migration.
Community Interactions: Exploring how different species in a specific area interact with each other, such as through competition or cooperation.
Ecological Succession: Studying the increasing changes in ecosystems over time, including how new communities of plants and animals replace older ones.
Conservation Biology: Focusing on protecting and preserving ecosystems and species, especially those facing threats or endangerment.

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v.4(F1000 Faculty Rev); 2015

Hot topics in biodiversity and climate change research

Barry w. brook.

1 School of Biological Sciences, Private Bag 55, University of Tasmania, Hobart, 7001, Australia

Damien A. Fordham

2 The Environment Institute and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

Peer Review Summary

Review date	Reviewer name(s)	Version reviewed	Review status
	Bernhard Schmid		Approved
	Jonathan Rhodes		Approved

With scientific and societal interest in biodiversity impacts of climate change growing enormously over the last decade, we analysed directions and biases in the recent most highly cited data papers in this field of research (from 2012 to 2014). The majority of this work relied on leveraging large databases of already collected historical information (but not paleo- or genetic data), and coupled these to new methodologies for making forward projections of shifts in species’ geographical ranges, with a focus on temperate and montane plants. A consistent finding was that the pace of climate-driven habitat change, along with increased frequency of extreme events, is outpacing the capacity of species or ecological communities to respond and adapt.

Introduction

It is now halfway through the second decade of the 21 st century, and climate change impact has emerged as a “hot topic” in biodiversity research. In the early decades of the discipline of conservation biology (1970s and 1980s), effort was focused on studying and mitigating the four principal drivers of extinction risk since the turn of the 16 th century, colourfully framed by Diamond 1 as the “evil quartet”: habitat destruction, overhunting (or overexploitation of resources), introduced species, and chains of extinctions (including trophic cascades and co-extinctions). Recent work has also emphasised the importance of synergies among drivers of endangerment 2 . But the momentum to understand how other aspects of global change (such as a disrupted climate system and pollution) add to, and reinforce, these threats has built since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports 3 of 2001 and 2007 and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 4 in 2005.

Scientific studies on the effects of climate change on biodiversity have proliferated in recent decades. A Web of Science ( webofscience.com ) query on the term “biodiversity AND (climate change)”, covering the 14 complete years of the 21 st century, shows the peer-reviewed literature matching this search term has grown from just 87 papers in 2001 to 1,377 in 2014. Figure 1 illustrates that recent scientific interest in climate change-related aspects of biodiversity research has outpaced—in relative terms—the baseline trend of interest in other areas of biodiversity research (i.e., matching the query “biodiversity NOT (climate change)”), with climate-related research rising from 5.5% of biodiversity papers in 2001 to 16.8% in 2014.

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Number of refereed papers listed in the Web of Science database that were published between 2001 and 2014 on the specific topic “biodiversity AND (climate change)” (blue line, secondary y-axis) compared to the more general search term “biodiversity NOT (climate change)”.

Interest in this field of research seems to have been driven by a number of concerns. First, there is an increasing societal and scientific consensus on the need to measure, predict (and, ultimately, mitigate) the impact of anthropogenic climate change 5 , linked to the rise of industrial fossil-fuel combustion and land-use change 6 . Biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformations, in particular, have been highlighted as possibly being amongst the most sensitive of Earth’s systems to global change 7 , 8 . Second, there is increasing attention given to quantifying the reinforcing (or occasionally stabilising) feedbacks between climate change and other impacts of human development, such as agricultural activities and land clearing, invasive species, exploitation of natural resources, and biotic interactions 2 , 9 . Third, there has been a trend towards increased accessibility of climate change data and predictions at finer spatio-temporal resolutions, making it more feasible to do biodiversity climate research 10 , 11 .

What are the major directions being taken by the field of climate change and biodiversity research in recent years? Are there particular focal topics, or methods, that have drawn most attention? Here we summarise major trends in the recent highly cited literature of this field.

Filtering and categorising the publications

To select papers, we used the Web of Science indexing service maintained by Thomson Reuters, using the term “biodiversity AND (climate change)” to search within article titles, abstracts, and keywords. This revealed 3,691 matching papers spanning the 3-year period 2012 to 2014. Of these, 116 were categorised by Essential Science Indicators ( esi.incites.thomsonreuters.com ) as being “Highly Cited Papers” (definition: “As of November/December 2014, this highly cited paper received enough citations to place it in the top 1% of [its] academic field based on a highly cited threshold for the field and publication year”), with five also being classed as “Hot Papers” (definition: “Published in the past two years and received enough citations in November/December 2014 to place it in the top 0.1% of papers in [its] academic field”). The two academic fields most commonly associated with these selected papers were “Plant & Animal Science” and “Environment/Ecology”.

Next we ranked each highly cited paper by year, according to its total accumulated citations through to April 1 2015, and then selected the top ten papers from each year (2012, 2013 and 2014) for detailed assessment. We wished to focus on data-oriented research papers, so only those labelled “Article” (Document Type) were considered, with “Review”, “Editorial”, or other non-research papers being excluded from our final list. Systematic reviews that included a formal meta-analysis were, however, included. We then further vetted each potential paper based on a detailed examination of its content, and rejected those articles for which the topics of biodiversity or climate change constituted only a minor component, or where these were only mentioned in passing (despite appearing in the abstract or key words).

The final list of 30 qualifying highly cited papers is shown in Table 1 , ordered by year and first author. The full bibliographic details are given, along with a short description of the key message of the research (a subjective summary, based on our interpretation of the paper). Each paper was categorised by methodological type, the aspect of climate change that was the principal focus, the spatial and biodiversity scale of the study units, the realm, biome and taxa under study, the main ecological focus, and the research type and application (the first row of Table 1 lists possible choices that might be allocated within a given categorisation). Note that our choice of categories for the selected papers was unavoidably idiosyncratic, in this case being dictated largely by the most common topics that appeared in the reviewed papers. Other emphases, such as non-temperature-related drivers of global change, evolutionary responses, and so on, might have been more suitable for other bodies of literature. We also did not attempt to undertake any rigorous quantification of effect sizes in reported responses of biodiversity to climate change; such an approach would have required a systematic review and meta-analysis, which was beyond the scope of this overview of highly cited papers.

Summary of the ten most highly cited research papers based on the search term: “biodiversity AND (climate change)”, for each of 2012 9 , 13 , 14 , 23 , 26 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 40 , 45 , 2013 15 – 17 , 21 , 27 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 37 , 39 and 2014 18 – 20 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 35 , 38 , as determined in the ISI Web of Science database. Filters : Reviews, commentaries, and opinion pieces were excluded, as were papers for which climate change was not among the focal topics of the research. The first row of the Table is a key that shows the possible categorisations that were open to selection (more than one description might be selected for a given paper); n is the number of times a category term was allocated.

Authors	Year	Title	Journal/Vol/Pg	DOI	Main Message	Type		Climate Change		Spatial Scale		Biodiversity Scale		Realm		Biome		Taxon		Use		Ecological Focus
Author 1 Author 2 Author 3 …then .	2012 2013 2014	Article title	Publication details Journal, volume Page range	Digital Object Identifier	Key findings of the paper	Methods development Meta-analysis New model Experiment New field data Database Statistical	9 3 5 5 6 14 8	Observed Retrospective validation Reconstruction Future forecast Experimental	9 2 1 19 2	Local Regional Global Multiscale	7 14 7 2	Population Species Community Ecosystem	7 14 8 6	Terrestrial Marine Other	24 8 1	Montane Polar Boreal Temperate Subtropical Tropical Desert Island Riverine Lacustrine Pelagic Benthic Abyssal Global Any	9 3 4 11 6 4 2 0 1 0 3 5 1 4 2	Plant Invertebrate Amphibian Reptile Fish Bird Mammal All	16 4 4 4 4 2 3 5	Theoretical- Fundamental Applied- Management Strategic- Policy	13 17 7	Trait Population dynamics Biogeography Physiology Behaviour Distribution Genetic Migration- dispersal Networks Threatened species Community dynamics Biotic interactions Global change	5 7 3 10 1 16 0 8 1 3 4 2 3
Dullinger, S., Gattringer, A., Thuiller, W.,	2012	Extinction debt of high- mountain plants under twenty-first- century climate change	Nature Climate Change/ 2/619–622		European Alps plants will suffer average 21stC range contractions of 50% but population dynamics will lag, causing extinction debt	New model, Database		Future forecast		Regional		Community, Species		Terrestrial		Montane		Plant		Strategic-Policy		Population dynamics, Distribution
Elmendorf, S.C., Henry, G.H.R., Hollister, R.D.,	2012	Global assessment of experimental climate warming on tundra vegetation: heterogeneity over space and time	Ecology Letters/ 15/164–175		Response of tundra plants to experimental warming was linear/ cumulative, with no obvious saturating or threshold impacts (indicating lack of feedbacks) but strong regional heterogeneity	Meta-analysis		Experimental		Multiscale		Community, Ecosystem		Terrestrial		Polar, Boreal		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental		Population dynamics, Community dynamics
Fordham, D.A., Akçakaya, H.R., Araújo, M.B.,	2012	Plant extinction risk under climate change: are forecast range shifts alone a good indicator of species vulnerability to global warming?	Global Change Biology/ 18/1357–1371		It is important to consider direct measures of extinction risk, as well as measures of change in habitat area, when assessing climate change impacts on biodiversity	Methods development, Database		Future forecast		Regional		Species		Terrestrial		Temperate		Plant		Applied- Management		Population dynamics, Distribution, Trait
Gottfried, M., Pauli, H., Futschik, A.,	2012	Continent- wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change	Nature Climate Change/ 2/111–115		Based on 60 mountain peaks in Europe plant communities are being transformed by gradual warming, with thermophillic species displacing competitors at a geographically variable pace	Database		Observed		Regional		Community		Terrestrial		Montane		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental		Trait, Physiology, Community dynamics
Hickler, T., Vohland, K., Feehan, J.,	2012	Projecting the future distribution of European potential natural vegetation zones with a generalised, tree species- based dynamic vegetation model	Global Ecology and Biogeography/ 21/50–63		A new dynamic vegetation model shows that climate change is likely to cause significant shifts in vegetation types in Europe	New model		Future forecast		Regional		Community		Terrestrial		Montane, Boreal, Temperate		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental, Applied- Management		Biogeography, Distribution
Mantyka- Pringle, C.S., Martin, T.G., Rhodes, J.R.	2012	Interactions between climate and habitat loss effects on biodiversity: a systematic review and meta-analysis	Global Change Biology/ 18/1239–1252		In synergy with other threats, maximum temperature was most closely associated with habitat loss, followed by mean precipitation decrease	Meta-analysis, Database		Observed		Global		Population, Community		Terrestrial		Global		All		Strategic-Policy		Global change, Distribution
Schloss C.A., Nunez, T.A., Lawler, J.J.	2012	Dispersal will limit ability of mammals to track climate change in the Western Hemisphere	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America/ 109/8606–8611		Many mammals in the Western Hemisphere will be unable to migrate fast enough to keep pace with climate change	Database, Statistical		Future forecast		Regional - Western Hemisphere		Species		Terrestrial		Montane, Polar, Boreal, Temperate, Subtropical, Tropical, Desert		Mammal		Applied- Management		Distribution, Migration-dispersal
Sunday J.M., Bates, A.E., Dulvy, N.K.	2012	Thermal tolerance and the global redistribution of animals	Nature Climate Change/ 2/686–690		Thermal tolerance determines the ranges of marine, but not terrestrial, ectotherms	Database, Statistical		Observed		Global		Species		Terrestrial, Marine		Global		Invertebrate, Amphibian, Reptile, Fish		Theoretical- Fundamental, Applied- Management		Biogeography, Physiology, Distribution
Urban, M.C., Tewksbury, J.J., Sheldon, K.S.	2012	On a collision course: competition and dispersal differences create no-analogue communities and cause extinctions during climate change	Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences/ 279/2072–2080		Interspecific competition and dispersal differences between species will elevate future climate-driven extinctions	Methods development		Future forecast		Local		Community		Terrestrial		Montane		All		Theoretical- Fundamental		Community dynamics, Biotic interactions, Migration-dispersal
Zhu, K., Woodall, C.W., Clark, J.S.	2012	Failure to migrate: lack of tree range expansion in response to climate change	Global Change Biology/ 18/1042–1052		Tree species in the US showed a pattern of climate-related contraction in range, or a northwards shift, with <5% expanding. No relationship between climate velocity and rate of seedling spread	Database		Observed		Regional		Population		Terrestrial		Montane, Temperate, Subtropical		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental		Distribution, Migration-dispersal
Anderegg, W.R.L., Plavcova, L., Anderegg, L.D.,	2013	Drought’s legacy: multiyear hydraulic deterioration underlies widespread aspen forest die-off and portends increased future risk	Global Change Biology/ 19/1188–1196		Accumulation of drought- induced hydraulic damage to trees over multiple years leads to increased forest mortality rates and increased vulnerability to extreme events	New field data, Experiment		Observed, Experimental		Local		Population		Terrestrial		Temperate		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental		Physiology, Population dynamics
Boetius, A., Albrecht, S., Bakker, K.,	2013	Export of algal biomass from the melting Arctic sea ice	Science/339/1430–1432		Anomalous melting of summer Arctic sea-ice enhanced the export of algal biomass to the deep-sea, leading to increased sequestering of carbon to oceanic sediments	New field data		Observed		Regional		Ecosystem		Marine		Polar, Pelagic, Benthic		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental		Global change
Foden W.B., Butchart, S.H.M., Stuart, S.N.,	2013	Identifying the World's Most Climate Change Vulnerable Species: A Systematic Trait-Based Assessment of all Birds, Amphibians and Corals	PLoS ONE/8/e65427		Species’ traits associated with heightened sensitivity and low adaptive capacity to climate change can be used to identify the most vulnerable species and regions	Database, Methods development		Future forecast		Global		Species		Terrestrial, Marine		Any		Amphibian, Invertebrate, Bird		Applied- Management, Strategic-Policy		Threatened species, Distribution, Trait
Franklin, J., David, F.W., Ikeami, M.,	2013	Modeling plant species distributions under future climates: how fine scale do climate projections need to be?	Global Change Biology/ 19/473–483		The spatial resolution of models influences the location and amount of forecast suitable habitat under climate change	Methods development, Database, Statistical		Future forecast		Regional		Species		Terrestrial		Temperate, Montane		Plant		Applied- Management		Distribution
Hannah, L., Roehrdanz, P. Ikegami, M.,	2013	Climate change, wine, and conservation	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America/ 110/6907–6912		Climate change will have a substantial impact on suitable habitat for viticulture, potentially causing conservation conflicts	Statistical, Database		Future forecast		Global		Species		Terrestrial		Temperate		Plant		Applied- Management		Distribution
Harvey B.P., Gwynn-Jones, D., Moore, P.J	2013	Meta-analysis reveals complex marine biological responses to the interactive effects of ocean acidification and warming	Ecology and Evolution/ 3/1016–1030		Biological responses of marine organisms are affected by synergisms between ocean acidification and warming	Meta-analysis, Experiment		Future forecast		Multiscale		Population		Marine		Pelagic, Benthic, Abyssal		Plant, Invertebrate, Fish		Theoretical- Fundamental, Applied- Management		Physiology, Population dynamics
Hazen, E.L., Jorgensen, S., Rykaczewski, R.,	2013	Predicted habitat shifts of Pacific top predators in a changing climate	Nature Climate Change/ 3/234–238		For a forecast rise of 1–6C in sea-surface temperature, predicts up to a +/-35% change in core habitat of top marine predators	New model, New field data		Future forecast		Regional		Ecosystem		Marine		Temperate, Pelagic		Bird, Fish, Mammal, Reptile		Theoretical- Fundamental, Strategic-Policy		Distribution, Migration-dispersal
Scheiter, S., Langan, L. Higgins, S.I.	2013	Next- generation dynamic global vegetation models: learning from community ecology	New Phytologist/ 198/957–969		Describes features of next- generation dynamic global vegetation models, illustrates how current limits could be addressed by integrating community assembly rules	New model, Methods development		Retrospective validation, Future forecast		Global		Population, Ecosystem		Terrestrial		Boreal, Temperate, Subtropical, Tropical		Plant		Theoretical- Fundamental, Applied- Management		Trait, Physiology, Biogeography
Smale, D.A., Wernberg, T.	2013	Extreme climatic event drives range contraction of a habitat- forming species	Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences/ 280/20122829		Extreme warming events can cause population extirpation leading to distribution shifts	New field data, Experiment		Observed		Regional		Species		Marine		Benthic		Plant		Applied- Management		Distribution, Physiology
Warren, R., VanDerWal, J., Price, J.,	2013	Quantifying the benefit of early climate change mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss	Nature Climate Change/ 3/678–682		Analysis of a range of future climate change scenarios shows that over 1/2 plant species and 1/3 mammals likely to lose >50% of range by 2080s; mitigation cuts this substantially	Database, Statistical		Future forecast		Global		Species		Terrestrial		Global		All		Strategic-Policy		Distribution
Bates, A.E., Barrett, N.S., Stuart-Smith, R.D.,	2014	Resilience and signatures of tropicalisation in protected reef fish communities	Nature Climate Change/ 4/62–67		Protection from fishing buffers fluctuations in reef fish diversity and provides resistance to climate change	New field data, Statistical		Observed		Local		Community		Marine		Benthic		Fish		Applied- Management		Global change
Burrows M.T., Schoeman, D.S., Richardson, A.J.,	2014	Geographical limits to species- range shifts are suggested by climate velocity	Nature/507/492–495		Global and regional maps of future climate velocity can be used to infer shifts in species distributions	Methods development		Reconstruction, Future forecast		Global		Species		Terrestrial		Global		All		Applied- Management, Strategic-Policy		Migration- dispersal, Distribution
Hennige, S.J., Wicks, L.C., Kamenos, N.A.,	2014	Short-term metabolic and growth responses of the cold- water coral to ocean acidification	Deep-Sea Research Part II-Topical Studies in Oceanography/ 99/27–35		Increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide will negatively influence the respiration rates, but not calcification rates, of cold- water corals	Experiment		Future forecast		Local		Population		Marine		Benthic		Invertebrate		Theoretical- Fundamental		Physiology
Jantz, P., Goetz, S., Laporte, N.	2014	Carbon stock corridors to mitigate climate change and promote biodiversity in the tropics	Nature Climate Change/ 4/138–142		If corridors were established to strategically connect tropical forest reserves, would have dual benefit of facilitating dispersal and capturing 15% of currently unprotected carbon stocks	Statistical		Future forecast		Regional		Ecosystem		Terrestrial		Tropical		Plant		Applied- Management		Networks, Migration-dispersal
Pearson, R.G., Stanton, J.C., Shoemaker, K.,	2014	Life history and spatial traits predict extinction risk due to climate change	Nature Climate Change/ 4/217–221		Extinction risk from climate change can be predicted using spatial and demographic variables already used in species conservation assessments	Methods development, Database		Future forecast		Regional		Population, Species		Terrestrial		Montane, Temperate, Subtropical, Desert, Riverine		Amphibian, Reptile		Applied- Management		Trait, Population dynamics, Distribution, Migration- dispersal, Threatened species
Radosavljevic, A., Anderson, R.P.	2014	Making better MAXENT models of species distributions: complexity, overfitting and evaluation	Journal of Biogeography/ 41/629–643		Application of MAXENT to a threatened mouse species to illustrate how species- specific tuning can improve model fit and retrospective validation scores	Statistical, Methods development		Retrospective validation		Regional		Species		Terrestrial		Tropical		Mammal		Theoretical- Fundamental		Distribution, Threatened species
Scheffers, B.R., Edwards, D.P., Diesmos, A.,	2014	Microhabitats reduce animal's exposure to climate extremes	Global Change Biology/ 20/495–503		Microhabitats decrease the vulnerability of species and communities to climate change	New field data, Experiment		Future forecast		Local		Species		Terrestrial		Montane		Amphibian, Reptile		Applied- Management		Physiology
Schmitz, O.J., Barton, B.T.	2014	Climate change effects on behavioral and physiological ecology of predator-prey interactions: Implications for conservation biological control	Biological Control/ 75/87–96		Develops a "habitat domain" framework to help to forecast how climate change will alter predator-prey interactions and biological control	Methods development		Future forecast		Local		Community		Terrestrial		Any		All		Applied- Management		Behaviour, Physiology, Biotic interactions
Shoo, L.P., O'Mara, J., Perhans, K.,	2014	Moving beyond the conceptual: specificity in regional climate change adaptation actions for biodiversity in South East Queensland, Australia	Regional Environmental Change/14/435–447		Uses case studies from SE Queensland biomes to illustrate the value of context- specific approaches to conservation planning under climate change	Database		Future forecast		Local		Ecosystem		Terrestrial, Other		Subtropical		Plant		Applied- Management		Community dynamics, Physiology
Zhu, K., Woodall, C.W., Ghosh, S.,	2014	Dual impacts of climate change: forest migration and turnover through life history	Global Change Biology/ 20/251–264		Tree species in eastern US are not migrating sufficiently to track climate change, and are instead responding with faster turnover rates in warm and wet climates	Database, New model		Observed		Regional		Species		Terrestrial		Temperate, Subtropical		Plant		Strategic- Policy		Migration- dispersal, Population dynamics

Analysis of trends, biases and gaps

Based on the categorisation frequencies in Table 1 (counts are given in the n columns adjacent to each category), the “archetypal” highly cited paper in biodiversity and climate change research relies on a database of previously collated information, makes an assessment based on future forecasts of shifts in geographical distributions, is regional in scope, emphasises applied-management outcomes, and uses terrestrial plant species in temperate zones as the study unit.

Many papers also introduced new methodological developments, studied montane communities, took a theoretical-fundamental perspective, and considered physiological, population dynamics, and migration-dispersal aspects of ecological change. Plants were by far the dominant taxonomic group under investigation. By contrast, relatively few of the highly cited paper studies used experimental manipulations or network analysis; lake, river, island and marine systems were rarely treated; nor did they focus on behavioural or biotic interactions. Crucially, none of the highly cited papers relied on paleoclimate reconstructions or genetic information, despite the potential value of such data for model validation and contextualisation 12 . Such data are crucial in providing evidence for species responses to past environmental changes, specifying possible limits of adaptation (rate and extent) and fundamental niches, and testing theories of biogeography and macroecology.

At the time of writing, 5 of the 30 highly cited papers listed in Table 1 (16%) also received article recommendations from Faculty of 1000 experts ( f1000.com/prime/recommendations ) 9 , 13 – 16 with none of the most recent (2014) highly cited papers having yet received an F1000 Prime endorsement.

Key findings of the highly cited paper collection for 2012–2014

A broad conclusion of the highly cited papers for 2012–2014 (drawn from the “main message” summaries described in Table 1 ) is that the pace of climate change-forced habitat change, coupled with the increased frequency of extreme events 15 , 17 and synergisms that arise with other threat drivers 9 , 18 and physical barriers 19 , is typically outpacing or constraining the capacity of species, communities, and ecosystems to respond and adapt 20 , 21 . The combination of these factors leads to accumulated physiological stresses 13 , 15 , 22 , might have already induced an “extinction debt” in many apparently viable resident populations 14 , 23 – 25 , and is leading to changing community compositions as thermophilic species displace their more climate-sensitive competitors 13 , 26 . In addition to atmospheric problems caused by anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions, there is mounting interest in the resilience of marine organisms to ocean acidification 27 , 28 and altered nutrient flows 16 .

Although models used to underpin the forecasts of climate-driven changes to biotic populations and communities have seen major advances in recent years, as a whole the field still draws from a limited suite of methods, such as ecological niche models, matrix population projections and simple measures of change in metrics of ecological diversity 7 , 12 , 29 . However, new work is pushing the field in innovative directions, including a focus on advancements in dynamic habitat-vegetation models 30 – 32 , improved frameworks for projecting shifts in species distributions 29 , 33 , 34 and how this might be influenced by competition or predation 35 , 36 , and analyses that seek to identify ecological traits that can better predict the relative vulnerability of different taxa to climate change 37 , 38 .

In terms of application of the research to conservation and policy, some offer local or region-specific advice on ecosystem management and its integration with other human activities (e.g., agriculture, fisheries) under a changing climate 18 , 24 , 35 , 39 . However, the majority of the highly cited papers used some form of forecasting to predict the consequences of different climate-mitigation scenarios (or business-as-usual) on biodiversity responses and extinctions 20 – 22 , 33 , 40 , so as to illustrate the potentially dire consequences of inaction.

Future directions

The current emphasis on leveraging large databases for evidence of species responses to observed (recent) climate change is likely to wane as existing datasets are scrutinised repeatedly. This suggests to us that future research will be forced to move increasingly towards the logistically more challenging experimental manipulations (laboratory, mesocosm, and field-based). The likelihood of this shift in emphasis is reinforced by the recent trend towards mechanistic models in preference to correlative approaches 41 . Such approaches arguably offer the greatest potential to yield highly novel insights, especially for predicting and managing the outcomes of future climate-ecosystem interactions that have no contemporary or historical analogue. Along with this work would come an increasing need for systematic reviews and associated meta-analysis, to summarise these individual studies quantitatively and use the body of experiments to test hypotheses.

Technological advances will also drive this field forward. This includes the development of open-source software and function libraries that facilitate and standardise routine tasks like validation and sensitivity analysis of projection or statistical models 42 , 43 , as well as improved access to data layers from large spatio-temporal datasets like ensemble climate forecasts 10 and palaeoclimatic hindcasts 44 . An increasing emphasis on cloud-based storage and use of off-site high-performance parallel computing infrastructure will make it realistic for researchers to undertake computationally intensive tasks 31 from their desktop.

These approaches are beginning to emerge, and a few papers on these topics already appear in the highly cited paper list ( Table 1 ). This includes the innovative exposure of coral populations to varying carbon dioxide concentrations, and the meta-analyses of tundra plant response to experimental warming 45 and marine organisms to ocean chemistry 27 . Such work must also be underpinned by improved models of the underlying mechanisms and dynamic processes, ideally using multi-species frameworks that make use of ensemble forecasting methods for improved incorporation of scenario and climate model uncertainty 10 . Such an approach can account better for biotic interactions 41 via individual-based and physiologically explicit “bottom-up” models of adaptive responses 31 . Lastly, there must be a greater emphasis on using genetic information to integrate eco-evolutionary processes into biodiversity models 46 , and on improving methods for making the best use of retrospective knowledge from palaeoecological data 12 .

[version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Funding Statement

This work was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP120101019 (Brook) and Future Fellowship FT140101192 (Fordham).

Referee response for version 1

Bernhard schmid.

1 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, CH-8057, Switzerland

I have read this submission. I believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Jonathan Rhodes

1 Landscape Ecology and Conversation Group, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Understanding ecosystems for a sustainable future, search form.

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Research Article

Scientific research on animal biodiversity is systematically biased towards vertebrates and temperate regions

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Insect Ecology Group, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Roles Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Biological Sciences, Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Mark A. Titley,
Jake L. Snaddon,
Edgar C. Turner

Published: December 14, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577
Reader Comments

Over the last 25 years, research on biodiversity has expanded dramatically, fuelled by increasing threats to the natural world. However, the number of published studies is heavily weighted towards certain taxa, perhaps influencing conservation awareness of and funding for less-popular groups. Few studies have systematically quantified these biases, although information on this topic is important for informing future research and conservation priorities. We investigated: i) which animal taxa are being studied; ii) if any taxonomic biases are the same in temperate and tropical regions; iii) whether the taxon studied is named in the title of papers on biodiversity, perhaps reflecting a perception of what biodiversity is; iv) the geographical distribution of biodiversity research, compared with the distribution of biodiversity and threatened species; and v) the geographical distribution of authors’ countries of origin. To do this, we used the search engine Web of Science to systematically sample a subset of the published literature with ‘biodiversity’ in the title. In total 526 research papers were screened—5% of all papers in Web of Science with biodiversity in the title. For each paper, details on taxonomic group, title phrasing, number of citations, study location, and author locations were recorded. Compared to the proportions of described species, we identified a considerable taxonomic weighting towards vertebrates and an under-representation of invertebrates (particularly arachnids and insects) in the published literature. This discrepancy is more pronounced in highly cited papers, and in tropical regions, with only 43% of biodiversity research in the tropics including invertebrates. Furthermore, while papers on vertebrate taxa typically did not specify the taxonomic group in the title, the converse was true for invertebrate papers. Biodiversity research is also biased geographically: studies are more frequently carried out in developed countries with larger economies, and for a given level of species or threatened species, tropical countries were understudied relative to temperate countries. Finally, biodiversity research is disproportionately authored by researchers from wealthier countries, with studies less likely to be carried out by scientists in lower-GDP nations. Our results highlight the need for a more systematic and directed evaluation of biodiversity studies, perhaps informing more targeted research towards those areas and taxa most depauperate in research. Only by doing so can we ensure that biodiversity research yields results that are relevant and applicable to all regions and that the information necessary for the conservation of threatened species is available to conservation practitioners.

Citation: Titley MA, Snaddon JL, Turner EC (2017) Scientific research on animal biodiversity is systematically biased towards vertebrates and temperate regions. PLoS ONE 12(12): e0189577. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577

Editor: Bernd Schierwater, Tierarztliche Hochschule Hannover, GERMANY

Received: February 5, 2017; Accepted: November 29, 2017; Published: December 14, 2017

Copyright: © 2017 Titley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Since 1988, when the word was first used in a publication [ 1 ], the idea of ‘biodiversity’ has become integrated into both popular and scientific culture. The word produces more than 50 million hits on Google [ 2 ] and almost 90,000 in the scientific search engine and database Web of Science at the time of writing [ 3 ]. Moreover, systematic quantification of the number of papers studying biodiversity shows a marked increase over the last two decades ( Fig 1 ).

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A search for the word ‘biodiversity’ in Web of Science by year reveals the increase in biodiversity research over time (search date: 10 th February 2016).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g001

Biodiversity was formally defined at the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity as ‘the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’[ 4 ]. The most commonly used meaning is diversity at the species level, although despite being an intuitive concept, in practice definitions of what constitutes a species, and estimates of Earth’s species richness, remain uncertain and variable. Estimates for global species richness typically fall in the range of 3 million to 100 million species [ 5 ] although a working figure between 5 and 15 million is often suggested [ 6 ].

Contrary to this uncertainly, it is well established that diversity is not evenly distributed amongst taxa. Arthropods, and especially insects, account for most known eukaryote species: of the 1.2–2 million described species, approximately 925,000 are insects [ 7 , 8 ]. However, it has become clear that public perceptions of biodiversity do not reflect this invertebrate-dominated reality. In the UK, children asked to draw their ‘ideal rainforest’ over-represented mammals, reptiles and birds, and under-represented insects and annelids [ 9 ]. Such taxonomic chauvinism is by no means restricted to children, nor is it restricted to non-academics: 31% of papers published in 2001 in three prominent conservation journals focussed on birds and mammals [ 10 ]. Although this focus on larger species is understandable, owing to their greater apparency and potentially greater importance for ecosystem processes and vulnerability to environmental change [ 11 , 12 ], it does mean that invertebrate conservation issues and extinctions may go unreported or unacknowledged. This could hamper an overarching understanding of the state of the natural environment. For example, only 70 modern insect extinctions have been documented, despite thousands being estimated to have occurred [ 13 ].

Several previous studies have examined these taxonomic biases in journal articles. A survey of papers on vertebrates from nine high-impact journals reported a bias towards mammals and birds [ 14 ]. Furthermore, mammal and bird studies had more ‘narrowly framed’ introductions and mentioned the study organisms sooner than in studies on fishes, reptiles or amphibians. In a review of fifteen years of research from two leading conservation research journals ( Biological Conservation and Conservation Biology ), an over-representation of vertebrates and under-representation of invertebrates was revealed [ 15 ]. Within vertebrates, birds and mammals were over-represented, while other taxa were under-represented. A similar study analysed the research in three prominent conservation journals [ 10 ], finding once again a weighting in favour of vertebrates, as well as towards pristine landscapes and single species, rather than communities. Another study focussed on the research output of four ecological journals ( Journal of Animal Ecology , Journal of Applied Ecology , Oecologia , Ecology ) for the years 2006 and 2007 [ 16 ], and again highlighted the tendency to ignore invertebrates, in particular insects, in high-impact journals. Also reported was a preference in British Research Council NERC funding towards vertebrate ecologists (38%) compared with entomologists (13%).

Thus, the topic of taxonomic seems well studied, although these four papers all used a similar approach, focussing on the research output of a few selected journals. In the present article, we take a different, more wide-ranging approach, sampling across the published literature for papers whose title contains the word biodiversity. We therefore do not discriminate by journal (hence nor by impact factor), aiming to obtain a more holistic and longer-term view of taxonomic biases in global biodiversity research. In addition, we chose to investigate geographical biases, to assess whether biodiversity research is skewed towards certain regions and whether taxonomic biases are stronger in certain parts of the world.

Specifically, we first investigate whether reported taxonomic biases (towards vertebrates, and towards birds and mammals especially) pervade papers on biodiversity and whether this weighting has changed over time. Secondly, we investigate whether any bias differs between temperate and tropical regions. Thirdly, we investigate how the titles of papers on biodiversity are phrased. In particular, whether papers studying biodiversity differ in how likely they are to specify the study taxon in the title compared between papers on invertebrate and vertebrate biodiversity. This may reflect and promote a common (if subconscious) perception of which taxa represent biodiversity. Fourthly, we investigate the global distribution of biodiversity research, compared to the actual distribution of biodiversity, to assess how well research effort reflects biodiversity. We also compare it to the distribution of IUCN Red-Listed species and GDP, to assess how research effort reflects conservation priorities and wealth. Finally, we investigate the authors’ countries of origin relative to the study location, to assess whether there is a mismatch between the distribution of research on biodiversity and biodiversity researchers by country.

Materials & methods

Sample selection.

The scientific citation-indexing platform ‘Web of Science’ was used to sample research papers from the period 1995–2015, following a strict and repeatable search protocol. To be eligible for inclusion, papers’ title must have contained the word ‘biodiversity’, and also had to be a primary research article, in order to exclude review papers and other publication types such as books (which might have led to double-counting of studies). For each year, we then randomly selected 5% of all eligible articles using the random number generator www.random.org [ 17 ]. Five percent was an arbitrary figure that produced a sample size of 526 publications, which was quantifiable within the time frame of this project. This method may be cruder and return more irrelevant results than the careful examination of selected journals, but enabled us to easily generate a large sample size, and sample across a broad range of journals and disciplines over many years to obtain a comprehensive selection of biodiversity research. In this study we chose to focus on biases in animal biodiversity research, although we acknowledge that biases may also exist and be important across other taxonomic groups.

Data collection

For each of the 526 papers in our sample, we recorded the taxon/taxa studied; the climate zone (temperate or tropical) in which the study took place; whether or not the taxonomic group was specified in the title; the country in which the study took place; the country of origin of the paper’s authors; and the number of times that paper had been cited as recorded in Web of Science at the time of searching. Vertebrate studies were classified into one or more of five major vertebrate groups (Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fishes). Correspondingly, five major invertebrate groups were chosen because of their high species richness and because they are relatively well studied (Insects, Arachnids, Nematodes, Annelids, and Molluscs). Studies on invertebrates that could not be classified into these five groups were recorded as ‘Other invertebrates’. When recording the climate zone, we considered any studies taking place between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23.5°N and S respectively) as ‘tropical’. Since only six polar studies existed in the sample, there were not enough to include these as a separate climate zone. We therefore considered all studies taking place at latitudes higher than the tropics to be ‘temperate’. By this classification, studies in polar regions are also classified as temperate. For each author, their country of origin was recorded as the country of their affiliated institution. If a paper had multiple authors from different countries, multiple countries were recorded for the authors’ country of origin.

Data analysis

Statistical analyses were performed using R (version 3.0.2) [ 18 ]. To analyse the top 25% most-cited papers separately, the average number of citations per year was calculated (total citations to date divided by the time since publication). Chi-square tests were used to test for differences between temperate and tropical regions, and whether taxa were specified or not in the title. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to test for differences between vertebrate and invertebrate residuals when comparing taxa for the proportion of studies versus proportion of described species as listed on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) database. Generalised linear models were used to test whether the number of biodiversity studies or authors in a country was related to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)–data from World Bank : World Development Indicators 2014 . Maps were created using QGIS (version 2.12.1) to visualise differences in research effort across countries worldwide. In particular, we mapped the number of biodiversity publications per 1000km 2 on vertebrates and invertebrates for each country, to visualise biases in research effort. We also mapped the number of authors relative to each country’s human population. By dividing the number of threatened species (data from IUCN [ 19 ]) by the number of biodiversity papers for each country, we also visualised countries that could be considered priorities for research (high numbers of threatened species relative to biodiversity research effort). Finally, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test whether tropical and temperate regions differed in research effort for a given level of species or threatened species.

Taxonomic biases

Approximately half of the papers sampled studied vertebrates, and half studied invertebrates ( Fig 2 ). However, this is far from the true proportions of described species, where over 95% of species are invertebrates (see right-hand column of Fig 2 ). Furthermore, this focus on vertebrates has been roughly consistent over the last 20 years. Given their true species richness, vertebrates were significantly over-represented compared to invertebrates in the published literature (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, W = 24, N = 10, P<0.05) ( Fig 3 ). Invertebrate taxa were either slightly over-represented (annelids, molluscs, nematodes and ‘other invertebrates’) or under-represented (insects and arachnids). In addition, the taxonomic bias was greater in highly cited papers. Of the top 25% most cited papers in the sample, only 47% included invertebrates, compared with 57% of the entire sample.

The proportion of different taxonomic groups in the sample of papers with ‘biodiversity’ in the title is shown for 4 five-year periods since 1996. For comparison, the right-hand column illustrates the ‘true’ proportions of described species that each group makes up (data from IUCN [ 20 ]) Vertebrate and invertebrate taxa are separated by a grey line.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g002

The proportion of studies on each taxonomic group is plotted against the ‘actual’ proportion of described species [ 20 ] found in that taxon. Values were log transformed for clarity. The 1:1 line is shown (dotted); over-represented groups are found above the line while under-represented groups are below it. Vertebrate groups are shown in red and invertebrate groups are shown in blue.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g003

Comparing tropical and temperate regions

In terms of the proportion of studies, the bias towards vertebrates was greater in tropical regions than temperate regions (Chi-square test, X 2 = 30.65, N = 672, P<0.001) ( Fig 4 ). In tropical countries, 43% of studies included invertebrates, compared to 63% in temperate countries. General patterns of taxonomic over- or under-representation were similar in tropical and temperate regions, although arachnids were particularly under-represented in the tropics, and molluscs were under-represented in the tropics despite being over-represented in temperate studies.

The bias towards vertebrates is greater in tropical regions than temperate regions. The proportions of described species in different groups are shown in the right-hand column for comparison.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g004

Differences in title phrasing

The proportion of papers for which a taxonomic group was specified in the title differed between vertebrates and invertebrates (Chi-square test, X 2 = 103.45, N = 714, P<0.0001) ( Fig 5 ). Specifically, most papers that studied vertebrates did not specify the study taxon/taxa in the title, and instead referred to ‘biodiversity’ more generally. In contrast, the titles of studies on invertebrates usually specified which taxa were being studied. An exception to this pattern was studies on fishes, where the majority of studies specified the taxon in the title.

The majority of studies on vertebrates (with the exception of studies on fishes) do not mention the study taxon in the title. Conversely, for papers on invertebrates, the taxa being studied were specified more often than not.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g005

Geographic biases

Biodiversity research was more commonly carried out in developed countries with larger economies, for both vertebrate and invertebrate studies ( Fig 6 ). The United States of America had the highest number of studies of any country in the sample, but the density of biodiversity research appears to be generally highest in Western Europe. Most tropical areas had fewer studies and very little research was based in African countries. The number of biodiversity studies was positively related to countries’ nominal GDP (Poisson regression, z = 28.62, N = 232, P<0.0001) ( Fig 7 ).

The number of papers with ‘biodiversity’ in the title per 1000km 2 is shown, for a) papers that study vertebrates and b) papers that study invertebrates. Darker colours represent a higher density of studies.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g006

Nominal GDP in US$ is plotted against the number of biodiversity studies sampled from each country, revealing a positive relationship. The top ten countries for number of papers are labelled. Many countries with low GDP had no biodiversity papers identified from this sample.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g007

Certain counties had a higher number of threatened species relative to the biodiversity research effort (given by dividing the number of IUCN listed threatened species [ 19 ] by the number of research publications on biodiversity ( Fig 8 ). In particular, northern South America, Africa and SE Asia had a low relative number of publications. Note that large areas of Africa lacked any studies at all in our sample. We recorded a generally a positive relationship between the number of publications and the number of threatened and number of species recorded in the IUCN database [ 19 , 20 ] per country. However, for a given level of species or threatened species, tropical regions were understudied compared to temperate regions; interactions were significant between climate region and number of threatened species (F 3,227 = 36.06, p<0.0001) ( Fig 9A ) and between climate region and number of species (F 3 , 227 = 48.28, p<0.0001) ( Fig 9B ).

Dividing the number of animal species threatened with extinction [ 19 ] by the number of biodiversity studies reveals regions that are understudied given their number of threatened species. Countries in northern South America, Africa and SE Asia stand out as being relatively understudied; much of central Africa lacked studies altogether in this sample. Darker colours represent a higher number of listed threatened species per study.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g008

Scatterplots comparing the number of biodiversity papers against the number of threatened animal species (a) and species richness (b) listed in IUCN databases [ 19 , 20 ] per country. Temperate countries tend to have more biodiversity research than tropical countries for a given number of threatened species or a given species richness.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g009

As with the distribution of biodiversity research, the distribution of authors was heavily biased towards developed countries, particularly Western Europe ( Fig 10 ). Many countries in Africa, central Asia and South America lacked any authors on the papers in the sample; this is particularly true when looking at lead authors only ( Fig 10B ). The number of authors from a country was strongly related to wealth of that country as approximated by nominal GDP (Poisson regression, z = 69.91, N = 232, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the GDP of authors’ countries of origin (median 2,066,902 million US$) was significantly higher than the GDP of study locations (median 1,453,770 million US$) (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, N = 513, W = 89086, P < 0.0001).

The number of authors (a) and lead authors (b) from each country relative to the country’s population. Many countries in Africa, central Asia and South America lacked authors on the papers in the sample.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.g010

The taxonomic bias

These results clearly demonstrate more charismatic animal groups are over-represented in biodiversity research and have been since biodiversity first emerged as a research field. Mammals, which make up around 0.4% of known animal species [ 20 ], were studied in approximately 12% of papers with biodiversity in the title. The equivalent numbers for birds are 0.7% and 13%. In contrast, insects make up at least 70% of animal species [ 20 ] yet were studied in less than a quarter (23%) of papers. This result corroborates earlier findings [ 10 , 14 – 16 ], and extends the phenomenon to all biodiversity research rather than just that of selected journals. Due to the high proportion of species remaining to be described, particularly among the invertebrates, this figure is likely to be conservative. These results have implications for awareness of the natural world in the scientific community, particularly as this taxonomic bias was greater in the top quartile of most-cited papers, suggesting that the research with the highest impact and largest influence is even less representative of the real world in this regard.

The taxonomic bias was greater in tropical regions, where vertebrates were studied in more than half of papers, despite vertebrates comprising less than 5% of animal species. As tropical countries contain a higher total species number and are therefore likely to have a much higher proportion of undescribed species [ 5 ], particularly smaller taxa, this under-representation is likely to be even more marked in reality. Ensuring adequate research coverage across taxa in tropical regions has important conservation implications. Most species are found in the tropics [ 21 ] and tropical regions encompass many of the world’s conservation priority hotspots [ 22 ], but are currently experiencing habitat loss faster than any other region [ 23 ].

Not all invertebrate taxa were underrepresented however; in fact, four out of the six invertebrate groups were somewhat over-represented in scientific research. The overall lack of invertebrate studies is, more precisely, a dearth of global insect and arachnid research and tropical mollusc research. The fact that insects and arachnids were the least well represented groups in this study does not mean they are the least represented of all taxa, since there will be other poorly studied invertebrate groups included within the other invertebrates category, or within these groups at a finer taxonomic scale. However, since arachnids and insects are so speciose, the deficiency of research in these groups is perhaps most significant to understanding global biodiversity. Another key finding relating to taxonomic bias is that studies on vertebrates typically did not specify the taxon in the title, referring to ‘biodiversity’ more generally. This was not the case for invertebrate research, for which the study taxa were usually specified. This could reflect a general perception that vertebrates alone are sufficient to represent biodiversity.

This unequal coverage of research across taxa may have a complex combination of causes. Researchers themselves may find studying charismatic vertebrates more appealing. Alternatively, it could represent the increased challenges of working with more diverse taxa, particularly in terms species identification. This is despite studies showing that certain insect groups are informative indicators of biodiversity and cost effective taxa to sample [ 24 , 25 ]. General perceptions of biodiversity may also be influenced by journal editors publishing a disproportionate number of articles on vertebrates (consciously or subconsciously), because such articles may be more likely to gain traction within a scientific community that is already vertebrate-biased (especially if journals are under pressure to maintain a high impact factor driven by citations). Vertebrate-biased research may also appeal to the media who are catering for a vertebrate-preferring public audience [ 9 ]. The taxonomic bias could also be the product of funding bodies, which may preferentially award research grants for vertebrate studies if these are perceived to be more important, interesting or relevant to conservation and policy priorities. A few or all of these hypotheses may play a role in producing the biases reported in this study.

Taxonomic bias is not necessarily bad. A bias towards charismatic vertebrate taxa may be advantageous where such taxa have a disproportionately large role in ecosystem functioning (keystone species), in generating funds and support for conservation (flagship species), or when their protection also ensures the protection of much of their ecosystem (umbrella species) [ 26 , 27 ]. In addition, certain taxa may be used as surrogates for other harder-to-study groups [ 28 , 29 ], which may have a similar geographic distribution or show a similar response to disturbance. However, notwithstanding doubt over the prevalence of keystone species and the reliability of taxonomic surrogates [ 30 , 31 ], it is unlikely that the taxonomic bias we have observed has arisen as a result of deliberate decisions to select these taxa as indicators of other lesser-known animal groups.

In using the proportion of described species as a reference for many of our analyses, we implicitly make the assumption that all species are equal. However, clearly this is not the case in terms of ecosystem function or conservation priority. It would be interesting to investigate whether the proportion of research done on different taxonomic groups better reflects the distribution of ecological importance or conservation value among taxa (rather than the proportion of described species), but it remains a challenge to identify meaningful measures for these that are comparable across taxa and globally applicable [ 32 ].

The geographic bias

The distribution of biodiversity research and its authors’ countries of origin resemble the distribution of GDP, rather than that of actual biodiversity or numbers of threatened species. The distribution of research is skewed towards developed countries and particularly Western Europe. Furthermore, even when studies are carried out in lower GDP-countries, the authors tend to be based at institutions in wealthier nations. Tropical countries tend to have fewer biodiversity studies despite being where more biodiversity is found and where biodiversity is most threatened. Tropical regions were also where the taxonomic bias was greatest. Taken together, these findings have important implications for biodiversity conservation: the same areas that are most threatened and most diverse are the least studied [ 23 ] and where scientists research is most skewed towards less-speciose groups. Therefore, we are likely to continue to undervalue these under-studied groups, especially in parts of the world where they are most threatened, and perhaps allocate less funding to their protection. Moreover, given that conservation efforts will be more likely to succeed when we better understand the target organisms, there is a real possibility that we may be ill equipped to protect the majority of animal biodiversity. Research gaps may mean we are less likely to identify threatened invertebrates and notice their disappearance, and we may be less likely to identify underlying threats and their drivers. Furthermore, without a good understanding of invertebrate biodiversity loss, we may suffer a reduced ability to predict subsequent anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems worldwide. Given that funding and time are limited, biodiversity research should be focussed on certain taxa for scientifically justified reasons, rather than because of an underlying subjectivity in what we consider to be important. Crucially, conservationists need to be more aware of these unequal weightings to prevent biodiverse taxa being overlooked or understudied.

Redressing biases

Significant challenges remain in addressing the biases we found. One is to popularize these lesser-known taxa to allow recognition of their importance. This could be achieved through more targeted funding for these invertebrate groups (and under-represented countries). Another challenge is to ease the practical issues of identification and research on these taxa [ 33 ]. Opportunities may be found in novel techniques such as metagenomic sequencing [ 34 ], or the development of apps that aid easy identification worldwide [ 35 ]. The use of modern media may ease access to specimens digitally, and help to put researchers and taxonomic experts in touch. It will require a concerted effort to redress these research biases and to ensure the least studied taxa and countries do not remain so, thus ensuring that we maximise the contribution of biodiversity research to our understanding of nature, and minimise the further erosion of biodiversity in our increasingly imperiled world.

Supporting information

S1 dataset. data used in this study..

See ‘metadata’ sheet for more information.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189577.s001

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Xavier Bonnet and another anonymous reviewer for their very helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Published: 31 August 2024

Knowledge mapping and evolution of research on older adults’ technology acceptance: a bibliometric study from 2013 to 2023

Xianru Shang ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-8906-3216 1 ,
Zijian Liu 1 ,
Chen Gong 1 ,
Zhigang Hu 1 ,
Yuexuan Wu 1 &
Chengliang Wang ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2208-3508 2

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 11 , Article number: 1115 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Science, technology and society

The rapid expansion of information technology and the intensification of population aging are two prominent features of contemporary societal development. Investigating older adults’ acceptance and use of technology is key to facilitating their integration into an information-driven society. Given this context, the technology acceptance of older adults has emerged as a prioritized research topic, attracting widespread attention in the academic community. However, existing research remains fragmented and lacks a systematic framework. To address this gap, we employed bibliometric methods, utilizing the Web of Science Core Collection to conduct a comprehensive review of literature on older adults’ technology acceptance from 2013 to 2023. Utilizing VOSviewer and CiteSpace for data assessment and visualization, we created knowledge mappings of research on older adults’ technology acceptance. Our study employed multidimensional methods such as co-occurrence analysis, clustering, and burst analysis to: (1) reveal research dynamics, key journals, and domains in this field; (2) identify leading countries, their collaborative networks, and core research institutions and authors; (3) recognize the foundational knowledge system centered on theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, and research methods and evaluation, uncovering seminal literature and observing a shift from early theoretical and influential factor analyses to empirical studies focusing on individual factors and emerging technologies; (4) moreover, current research hotspots are primarily in the areas of factors influencing technology adoption, human-robot interaction experiences, mobile health management, and aging-in-place technology, highlighting the evolutionary context and quality distribution of research themes. Finally, we recommend that future research should deeply explore improvements in theoretical models, long-term usage, and user experience evaluation. Overall, this study presents a clear framework of existing research in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, providing an important reference for future theoretical exploration and innovative applications.

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Introduction.

In contemporary society, the rapid development of information technology has been intricately intertwined with the intensifying trend of population aging. According to the latest United Nations forecast, by 2050, the global population aged 65 and above is expected to reach 1.6 billion, representing about 16% of the total global population (UN 2023 ). Given the significant challenges of global aging, there is increasing evidence that emerging technologies have significant potential to maintain health and independence for older adults in their home and healthcare environments (Barnard et al. 2013 ; Soar 2010 ; Vancea and Solé-Casals 2016 ). This includes, but is not limited to, enhancing residential safety with smart home technologies (Touqeer et al. 2021 ; Wang et al. 2022 ), improving living independence through wearable technologies (Perez et al. 2023 ), and increasing medical accessibility via telehealth services (Kruse et al. 2020 ). Technological innovations are redefining the lifestyles of older adults, encouraging a shift from passive to active participation (González et al. 2012 ; Mostaghel 2016 ). Nevertheless, the effective application and dissemination of technology still depends on user acceptance and usage intentions (Naseri et al. 2023 ; Wang et al. 2023a ; Xia et al. 2024 ; Yu et al. 2023 ). Particularly, older adults face numerous challenges in accepting and using new technologies. These challenges include not only physical and cognitive limitations but also a lack of technological experience, along with the influences of social and economic factors (Valk et al. 2018 ; Wilson et al. 2021 ).

User acceptance of technology is a significant focus within information systems (IS) research (Dai et al. 2024 ), with several models developed to explain and predict user behavior towards technology usage, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis 1989 ), TAM2, TAM3, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al. 2003 ). Older adults, as a group with unique needs, exhibit different behavioral patterns during technology acceptance than other user groups, and these uniquenesses include changes in cognitive abilities, as well as motivations, attitudes, and perceptions of the use of new technologies (Chen and Chan 2011 ). The continual expansion of technology introduces considerable challenges for older adults, rendering the understanding of their technology acceptance a research priority. Thus, conducting in-depth research into older adults’ acceptance of technology is critically important for enhancing their integration into the information society and improving their quality of life through technological advancements.

Reviewing relevant literature to identify research gaps helps further solidify the theoretical foundation of the research topic. However, many existing literature reviews primarily focus on the factors influencing older adults’ acceptance or intentions to use technology. For instance, Ma et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of older adults’ behavioral intentions to use technology; Liu et al. ( 2022 ) categorized key variables in studies of older adults’ technology acceptance, noting a shift in focus towards social and emotional factors; Yap et al. ( 2022 ) identified seven categories of antecedents affecting older adults’ use of technology from an analysis of 26 articles, including technological, psychological, social, personal, cost, behavioral, and environmental factors; Schroeder et al. ( 2023 ) extracted 119 influencing factors from 59 articles and further categorized these into six themes covering demographics, health status, and emotional awareness. Additionally, some studies focus on the application of specific technologies, such as Ferguson et al. ( 2021 ), who explored barriers and facilitators to older adults using wearable devices for heart monitoring, and He et al. ( 2022 ) and Baer et al. ( 2022 ), who each conducted in-depth investigations into the acceptance of social assistive robots and mobile nutrition and fitness apps, respectively. In summary, current literature reviews on older adults’ technology acceptance exhibit certain limitations. Due to the interdisciplinary nature and complex knowledge structure of this field, traditional literature reviews often rely on qualitative analysis, based on literature analysis and periodic summaries, which lack sufficient objectivity and comprehensiveness. Additionally, systematic research is relatively limited, lacking a macroscopic description of the research trajectory from a holistic perspective. Over the past decade, research on older adults’ technology acceptance has experienced rapid growth, with a significant increase in literature, necessitating the adoption of new methods to review and examine the developmental trends in this field (Chen 2006 ; Van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). Bibliometric analysis, as an effective quantitative research method, analyzes published literature through visualization, offering a viable approach to extracting patterns and insights from a large volume of papers, and has been widely applied in numerous scientific research fields (Achuthan et al. 2023 ; Liu and Duffy 2023 ). Therefore, this study will employ bibliometric methods to systematically analyze research articles related to older adults’ technology acceptance published in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2013 to 2023, aiming to understand the core issues and evolutionary trends in the field, and to provide valuable references for future related research. Specifically, this study aims to explore and answer the following questions:

RQ1: What are the research dynamics in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance over the past decade? What are the main academic journals and fields that publish studies related to older adults’ technology acceptance?

RQ2: How is the productivity in older adults’ technology acceptance research distributed among countries, institutions, and authors?

RQ3: What are the knowledge base and seminal literature in older adults’ technology acceptance research? How has the research theme progressed?

RQ4: What are the current hot topics and their evolutionary trajectories in older adults’ technology acceptance research? How is the quality of research distributed?

Methodology and materials

Research method.

In recent years, bibliometrics has become one of the crucial methods for analyzing literature reviews and is widely used in disciplinary and industrial intelligence analysis (Jing et al. 2023 ; Lin and Yu 2024a ; Wang et al. 2024a ; Xu et al. 2021 ). Bibliometric software facilitates the visualization analysis of extensive literature data, intuitively displaying the network relationships and evolutionary processes between knowledge units, and revealing the underlying knowledge structure and potential information (Chen et al. 2024 ; López-Robles et al. 2018 ; Wang et al. 2024c ). This method provides new insights into the current status and trends of specific research areas, along with quantitative evidence, thereby enhancing the objectivity and scientific validity of the research conclusions (Chen et al. 2023 ; Geng et al. 2024 ). VOSviewer and CiteSpace are two widely used bibliometric software tools in academia (Pan et al. 2018 ), recognized for their robust functionalities based on the JAVA platform. Although each has its unique features, combining these two software tools effectively constructs mapping relationships between literature knowledge units and clearly displays the macrostructure of the knowledge domains. Particularly, VOSviewer, with its excellent graphical representation capabilities, serves as an ideal tool for handling large datasets and precisely identifying the focal points and hotspots of research topics. Therefore, this study utilizes VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) and CiteSpace (version 6.1.R6), combined with in-depth literature analysis, to comprehensively examine and interpret the research theme of older adults’ technology acceptance through an integrated application of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Data source

Web of Science is a comprehensively recognized database in academia, featuring literature that has undergone rigorous peer review and editorial scrutiny (Lin and Yu 2024b ; Mongeon and Paul-Hus 2016 ; Pranckutė 2021 ). This study utilizes the Web of Science Core Collection as its data source, specifically including three major citation indices: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). These indices encompass high-quality research literature in the fields of science, social sciences, and arts and humanities, ensuring the comprehensiveness and reliability of the data. We combined “older adults” with “technology acceptance” through thematic search, with the specific search strategy being: TS = (elder OR elderly OR aging OR ageing OR senile OR senior OR old people OR “older adult*”) AND TS = (“technology acceptance” OR “user acceptance” OR “consumer acceptance”). The time span of literature search is from 2013 to 2023, with the types limited to “Article” and “Review” and the language to “English”. Additionally, the search was completed by October 27, 2023, to avoid data discrepancies caused by database updates. The initial search yielded 764 journal articles. Given that searches often retrieve articles that are superficially relevant but actually non-compliant, manual screening post-search was essential to ensure the relevance of the literature (Chen et al. 2024 ). Through manual screening, articles significantly deviating from the research theme were eliminated and rigorously reviewed. Ultimately, this study obtained 500 valid sample articles from the Web of Science Core Collection. The complete PRISMA screening process is illustrated in Fig. 1 .

Presentation of the data culling process in detail.

Data standardization

Raw data exported from databases often contain multiple expressions of the same terminology (Nguyen and Hallinger 2020 ). To ensure the accuracy and consistency of data, it is necessary to standardize the raw data (Strotmann and Zhao 2012 ). This study follows the data standardization process proposed by Taskin and Al ( 2019 ), mainly executing the following operations:

(1) Standardization of author and institution names is conducted to address different name expressions for the same author. For instance, “Chan, Alan Hoi Shou” and “Chan, Alan H. S.” are considered the same author, and distinct authors with the same name are differentiated by adding identifiers. Diverse forms of institutional names are unified to address variations caused by name changes or abbreviations, such as standardizing “FRANKFURT UNIV APPL SCI” and “Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences,” as well as “Chinese University of Hong Kong” and “University of Hong Kong” to consistent names.

(2) Different expressions of journal names are unified. For example, “International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction” and “Int J Hum Comput Interact” are standardized to a single name. This ensures consistency in journal names and prevents misclassification of literature due to differing journal names. Additionally, it involves checking if the journals have undergone name changes in the past decade to prevent any impact on the analysis due to such changes.

(3) Keywords data are cleansed by removing words that do not directly pertain to specific research content (e.g., people, review), merging synonyms (e.g., “UX” and “User Experience,” “aging-in-place” and “aging in place”), and standardizing plural forms of keywords (e.g., “assistive technologies” and “assistive technology,” “social robots” and “social robot”). This reduces redundant information in knowledge mapping.

Bibliometric results and analysis

Distribution power (rq1), literature descriptive statistical analysis.

Table 1 presents a detailed descriptive statistical overview of the literature in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. After deduplication using the CiteSpace software, this study confirmed a valid sample size of 500 articles. Authored by 1839 researchers, the documents encompass 792 research institutions across 54 countries and are published in 217 different academic journals. As of the search cutoff date, these articles have accumulated 13,829 citations, with an annual average of 1156 citations, and an average of 27.66 citations per article. The h-index, a composite metric of quantity and quality of scientific output (Kamrani et al. 2021 ), reached 60 in this study.

Trends in publications and disciplinary distribution

The number of publications and citations are significant indicators of the research field’s development, reflecting its continuity, attention, and impact (Ale Ebrahim et al. 2014 ). The ranking of annual publications and citations in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance studies is presented chronologically in Fig. 2A . The figure shows a clear upward trend in the amount of literature in this field. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of publications increased slowly and decreased in 2018. However, in 2019, the number of publications increased rapidly to 52 and reached a peak of 108 in 2022, which is 6.75 times higher than in 2013. In 2022, the frequency of document citations reached its highest point with 3466 citations, reflecting the widespread recognition and citation of research in this field. Moreover, the curve of the annual number of publications fits a quadratic function, with a goodness-of-fit R 2 of 0.9661, indicating that the number of future publications is expected to increase even more rapidly.

A Trends in trends in annual publications and citations (2013–2023). B Overlay analysis of the distribution of discipline fields.

Figure 2B shows that research on older adults’ technology acceptance involves the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge. According to Web of Science Categories, these 500 articles are distributed across 85 different disciplines. We have tabulated the top ten disciplines by publication volume (Table 2 ), which include Medical Informatics (75 articles, 15.00%), Health Care Sciences & Services (71 articles, 14.20%), Gerontology (61 articles, 12.20%), Public Environmental & Occupational Health (57 articles, 11.40%), and Geriatrics & Gerontology (52 articles, 10.40%), among others. The high output in these disciplines reflects the concentrated global academic interest in this comprehensive research topic. Additionally, interdisciplinary research approaches provide diverse perspectives and a solid theoretical foundation for studies on older adults’ technology acceptance, also paving the way for new research directions.

Knowledge flow analysis

A dual-map overlay is a CiteSpace map superimposed on top of a base map, which shows the interrelationships between journals in different domains, representing the publication and citation activities in each domain (Chen and Leydesdorff 2014 ). The overlay map reveals the link between the citing domain (on the left side) and the cited domain (on the right side), reflecting the knowledge flow of the discipline at the journal level (Leydesdorff and Rafols 2012 ). We utilize the in-built Z-score algorithm of the software to cluster the graph, as shown in Fig. 3 .

The left side shows the citing journal, and the right side shows the cited journal.

Figure 3 shows the distribution of citing journals clusters for older adults’ technology acceptance on the left side, while the right side refers to the main cited journals clusters. Two knowledge flow citation trajectories were obtained; they are presented by the color of the cited regions, and the thickness of these trajectories is proportional to the Z-score scaled frequency of citations (Chen et al. 2014 ). Within the cited regions, the most popular fields with the most records covered are “HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICINE” and “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, SOCIAL”, and the elliptical aspect ratio of these two fields stands out. Fields have prominent elliptical aspect ratios, highlighting their significant influence on older adults’ technology acceptance research. Additionally, the major citation trajectories originate in these two areas and progress to the frontier research area of “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, HEALTH”. It is worth noting that the citation trajectory from “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, SOCIAL” has a significant Z-value (z = 6.81), emphasizing the significance and impact of this development path. In the future, “MATHEMATICS, SYSTEMS, MATHEMATICAL”, “MOLECULAR, BIOLOGY, IMMUNOLOGY”, and “NEUROLOGY, SPORTS, OPHTHALMOLOGY” may become emerging fields. The fields of “MEDICINE, MEDICAL, CLINICAL” may be emerging areas of cutting-edge research.

Main research journals analysis

Table 3 provides statistics for the top ten journals by publication volume in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Together, these journals have published 137 articles, accounting for 27.40% of the total publications, indicating that there is no highly concentrated core group of journals in this field, with publications being relatively dispersed. Notably, Computers in Human Behavior , Journal of Medical Internet Research , and International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction each lead with 15 publications. In terms of citation metrics, International Journal of Medical Informatics and Computers in Human Behavior stand out significantly, with the former accumulating a total of 1,904 citations, averaging 211.56 citations per article, and the latter totaling 1,449 citations, with an average of 96.60 citations per article. These figures emphasize the academic authority and widespread impact of these journals within the research field.

Research power (RQ2)

Countries and collaborations analysis.

The analysis revealed the global research pattern for country distribution and collaboration (Chen et al. 2019 ). Figure 4A shows the network of national collaborations on older adults’ technology acceptance research. The size of the bubbles represents the amount of publications in each country, while the thickness of the connecting lines expresses the closeness of the collaboration among countries. Generally, this research subject has received extensive international attention, with China and the USA publishing far more than any other countries. China has established notable research collaborations with the USA, UK and Malaysia in this field, while other countries have collaborations, but the closeness is relatively low and scattered. Figure 4B shows the annual publication volume dynamics of the top ten countries in terms of total publications. Since 2017, China has consistently increased its annual publications, while the USA has remained relatively stable. In 2019, the volume of publications in each country increased significantly, this was largely due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to increased reliance on information technology among the elderly for medical consultations, online socialization, and health management (Sinha et al. 2021 ). This phenomenon has led to research advances in technology acceptance among older adults in various countries. Table 4 shows that the top ten countries account for 93.20% of the total cumulative number of publications, with each country having published more than 20 papers. Among these ten countries, all of them except China are developed countries, indicating that the research field of older adults’ technology acceptance has received general attention from developed countries. Currently, China and the USA were the leading countries in terms of publications with 111 and 104 respectively, accounting for 22.20% and 20.80%. The UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands also made significant contributions. The USA and China ranked first and second in terms of the number of citations, while the Netherlands had the highest average citations, indicating the high impact and quality of its research. The UK has shown outstanding performance in international cooperation, while the USA highlights its significant academic influence in this field with the highest h-index value.

A National collaboration network. B Annual volume of publications in the top 10 countries.

Institutions and authors analysis

Analyzing the number of publications and citations can reveal an institution’s or author’s research strength and influence in a particular research area (Kwiek 2021 ). Tables 5 and 6 show the statistics of the institutions and authors whose publication counts are in the top ten, respectively. As shown in Table 5 , higher education institutions hold the main position in this research field. Among the top ten institutions, City University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong from China lead with 14 and 9 publications, respectively. City University of Hong Kong has the highest h-index, highlighting its significant influence in the field. It is worth noting that Tilburg University in the Netherlands is not among the top five in terms of publications, but the high average citation count (130.14) of its literature demonstrates the high quality of its research.

After analyzing the authors’ output using Price’s Law (Redner 1998 ), the highest number of publications among the authors counted ( n = 10) defines a publication threshold of 3 for core authors in this research area. As a result of quantitative screening, a total of 63 core authors were identified. Table 6 shows that Chen from Zhejiang University, China, Ziefle from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and Rogers from Macquarie University, Australia, were the top three authors in terms of the number of publications, with 10, 9, and 8 articles, respectively. In terms of average citation rate, Peek and Wouters, both scholars from the Netherlands, have significantly higher rates than other scholars, with 183.2 and 152.67 respectively. This suggests that their research is of high quality and widely recognized. Additionally, Chen and Rogers have high h-indices in this field.

Knowledge base and theme progress (RQ3)

Research knowledge base.

Co-citation relationships occur when two documents are cited together (Zhang and Zhu 2022 ). Co-citation mapping uses references as nodes to represent the knowledge base of a subject area (Min et al. 2021). Figure 5A illustrates co-occurrence mapping in older adults’ technology acceptance research, where larger nodes signify higher co-citation frequencies. Co-citation cluster analysis can be used to explore knowledge structure and research boundaries (Hota et al. 2020 ; Shiau et al. 2023 ). The co-citation clustering mapping of older adults’ technology acceptance research literature (Fig. 5B ) shows that the Q value of the clustering result is 0.8129 (>0.3), and the average value of the weight S is 0.9391 (>0.7), indicating that the clusters are uniformly distributed with a significant and credible structure. This further proves that the boundaries of the research field are clear and there is significant differentiation in the field. The figure features 18 cluster labels, each associated with thematic color blocks corresponding to different time slices. Highlighted emerging research themes include #2 Smart Home Technology, #7 Social Live, and #10 Customer Service. Furthermore, the clustering labels extracted are primarily classified into three categories: theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, research methods and evaluation, as detailed in Table 7 .

A Co-citation analysis of references. B Clustering network analysis of references.

Seminal literature analysis

The top ten nodes in terms of co-citation frequency were selected for further analysis. Table 8 displays the corresponding node information. Studies were categorized into four main groups based on content analysis. (1) Research focusing on specific technology usage by older adults includes studies by Peek et al. ( 2014 ), Ma et al. ( 2016 ), Hoque and Sorwar ( 2017 ), and Li et al. ( 2019 ), who investigated the factors influencing the use of e-technology, smartphones, mHealth, and smart wearables, respectively. (2) Concerning the development of theoretical models of technology acceptance, Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) introduced the Senior Technology Acceptance Model (STAM), and Macedo ( 2017 ) analyzed the predictive power of UTAUT2 in explaining older adults’ intentional behaviors and information technology usage. (3) In exploring older adults’ information technology adoption and behavior, Lee and Coughlin ( 2015 ) emphasized that the adoption of technology by older adults is a multifactorial process that includes performance, price, value, usability, affordability, accessibility, technical support, social support, emotion, independence, experience, and confidence. Yusif et al. ( 2016 ) conducted a literature review examining the key barriers affecting older adults’ adoption of assistive technology, including factors such as privacy, trust, functionality/added value, cost, and stigma. (4) From the perspective of research into older adults’ technology acceptance, Mitzner et al. ( 2019 ) assessed the long-term usage of computer systems designed for the elderly, whereas Guner and Acarturk ( 2020 ) compared information technology usage and acceptance between older and younger adults. The breadth and prevalence of this literature make it a vital reference for researchers in the field, also providing new perspectives and inspiration for future research directions.

Research thematic progress

Burst citation is a node of literature that guides the sudden change in dosage, which usually represents a prominent development or major change in a particular field, with innovative and forward-looking qualities. By analyzing the emergent literature, it is often easy to understand the dynamics of the subject area, mapping the emerging thematic change (Chen et al. 2022 ). Figure 6 shows the burst citation mapping in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance research, with burst citations represented by red nodes (Fig. 6A ). For the ten papers with the highest burst intensity (Fig. 6B ), this study will conduct further analysis in conjunction with literature review.

A Burst detection of co-citation. B The top 10 references with the strongest citation bursts.

As shown in Fig. 6 , Mitzner et al. ( 2010 ) broke the stereotype that older adults are fearful of technology, found that they actually have positive attitudes toward technology, and emphasized the centrality of ease of use and usefulness in the process of technology acceptance. This finding provides an important foundation for subsequent research. During the same period, Wagner et al. ( 2010 ) conducted theory-deepening and applied research on technology acceptance among older adults. The research focused on older adults’ interactions with computers from the perspective of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). This expanded the understanding of technology acceptance, particularly regarding the relationship between behavior, environment, and other SCT elements. In addition, Pan and Jordan-Marsh ( 2010 ) extended the TAM to examine the interactions among predictors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, and convenience conditions when older adults use the Internet, taking into account the moderating roles of gender and age. Heerink et al. ( 2010 ) adapted and extended the UTAUT, constructed a technology acceptance model specifically designed for older users’ acceptance of assistive social agents, and validated it using controlled experiments and longitudinal data, explaining intention to use by combining functional assessment and social interaction variables.

Then the research theme shifted to an in-depth analysis of the factors influencing technology acceptance among older adults. Two papers with high burst strengths emerged during this period: Peek et al. ( 2014 ) (Strength = 12.04), Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) (Strength = 9.81). Through a systematic literature review and empirical study, Peek STM and Chen K, among others, identified multidimensional factors that influence older adults’ technology acceptance. Peek et al. ( 2014 ) analyzed literature on the acceptance of in-home care technology among older adults and identified six factors that influence their acceptance: concerns about technology, expected benefits, technology needs, technology alternatives, social influences, and older adult characteristics, with a focus on differences between pre- and post-implementation factors. Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) constructed the STAM by administering a questionnaire to 1012 older adults and adding eight important factors, including technology anxiety, self-efficacy, cognitive ability, and physical function, based on the TAM. This enriches the theoretical foundation of the field. In addition, Braun ( 2013 ) highlighted the role of perceived usefulness, trust in social networks, and frequency of Internet use in older adults’ use of social networks, while ease of use and social pressure were not significant influences. These findings contribute to the study of older adults’ technology acceptance within specific technology application domains.

Recent research has focused on empirical studies of personal factors and emerging technologies. Ma et al. ( 2016 ) identified key personal factors affecting smartphone acceptance among older adults through structured questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with 120 participants. The study found that cost, self-satisfaction, and convenience were important factors influencing perceived usefulness and ease of use. This study offers empirical evidence to comprehend the main factors that drive smartphone acceptance among Chinese older adults. Additionally, Yusif et al. ( 2016 ) presented an overview of the obstacles that hinder older adults’ acceptance of assistive technologies, focusing on privacy, trust, and functionality.

In summary, research on older adults’ technology acceptance has shifted from early theoretical deepening and analysis of influencing factors to empirical studies in the areas of personal factors and emerging technologies, which have greatly enriched the theoretical basis of older adults’ technology acceptance and provided practical guidance for the design of emerging technology products.

Research hotspots, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution (RQ4)

Core keywords analysis.

Keywords concise the main idea and core of the literature, and are a refined summary of the research content (Huang et al. 2021 ). In CiteSpace, nodes with a centrality value greater than 0.1 are considered to be critical nodes. Analyzing keywords with high frequency and centrality helps to visualize the hot topics in the research field (Park et al. 2018 ). The merged keywords were imported into CiteSpace, and the top 10 keywords were counted and sorted by frequency and centrality respectively, as shown in Table 9 . The results show that the keyword “TAM” has the highest frequency (92), followed by “UTAUT” (24), which reflects that the in-depth study of the existing technology acceptance model and its theoretical expansion occupy a central position in research related to older adults’ technology acceptance. Furthermore, the terms ‘assistive technology’ and ‘virtual reality’ are both high-frequency and high-centrality terms (frequency = 17, centrality = 0.10), indicating that the research on assistive technology and virtual reality for older adults is the focus of current academic attention.

Research hotspots analysis

Using VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence analysis organizes keywords into groups or clusters based on their intrinsic connections and frequencies, clearly highlighting the research field’s hot topics. The connectivity among keywords reveals correlations between different topics. To ensure accuracy, the analysis only considered the authors’ keywords. Subsequently, the keywords were filtered by setting the keyword frequency to 5 to obtain the keyword clustering map of the research on older adults’ technology acceptance research keyword clustering mapping (Fig. 7 ), combined with the keyword co-occurrence clustering network (Fig. 7A ) and the corresponding density situation (Fig. 7B ) to make a detailed analysis of the following four groups of clustered themes.

A Co-occurrence clustering network. B Keyword density.

Cluster #1—Research on the factors influencing technology adoption among older adults is a prominent topic, covering age, gender, self-efficacy, attitude, and and intention to use (Berkowsky et al. 2017 ; Wang et al. 2017 ). It also examined older adults’ attitudes towards and acceptance of digital health technologies (Ahmad and Mozelius, 2022 ). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly impacting older adults’ technology attitudes and usage, has underscored the study’s importance and urgency. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct in-depth studies on how older adults accept, adopt, and effectively use new technologies, to address their needs and help them overcome the digital divide within digital inclusion. This will improve their quality of life and healthcare experiences.

Cluster #2—Research focuses on how older adults interact with assistive technologies, especially assistive robots and health monitoring devices, emphasizing trust, usability, and user experience as crucial factors (Halim et al. 2022 ). Moreover, health monitoring technologies effectively track and manage health issues common in older adults, like dementia and mild cognitive impairment (Lussier et al. 2018 ; Piau et al. 2019 ). Interactive exercise games and virtual reality have been deployed to encourage more physical and cognitive engagement among older adults (Campo-Prieto et al. 2021 ). Personalized and innovative technology significantly enhances older adults’ participation, improving their health and well-being.

Cluster #3—Optimizing health management for older adults using mobile technology. With the development of mobile health (mHealth) and health information technology, mobile applications, smartphones, and smart wearable devices have become effective tools to help older users better manage chronic conditions, conduct real-time health monitoring, and even receive telehealth services (Dupuis and Tsotsos 2018 ; Olmedo-Aguirre et al. 2022 ; Kim et al. 2014 ). Additionally, these technologies can mitigate the problem of healthcare resource inequality, especially in developing countries. Older adults’ acceptance and use of these technologies are significantly influenced by their behavioral intentions, motivational factors, and self-management skills. These internal motivational factors, along with external factors, jointly affect older adults’ performance in health management and quality of life.

Cluster #4—Research on technology-assisted home care for older adults is gaining popularity. Environmentally assisted living enhances older adults’ independence and comfort at home, offering essential support and security. This has a crucial impact on promoting healthy aging (Friesen et al. 2016 ; Wahlroos et al. 2023 ). The smart home is a core application in this field, providing a range of solutions that facilitate independent living for the elderly in a highly integrated and user-friendly manner. This fulfills different dimensions of living and health needs (Majumder et al. 2017 ). Moreover, eHealth offers accurate and personalized health management and healthcare services for older adults (Delmastro et al. 2018 ), ensuring their needs are met at home. Research in this field often employs qualitative methods and structural equation modeling to fully understand older adults’ needs and experiences at home and analyze factors influencing technology adoption.

Evolutionary trends analysis

To gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary trends in research hotspots within the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, we conducted a statistical analysis of the average appearance times of keywords, using CiteSpace to generate the time-zone evolution mapping (Fig. 8 ) and burst keywords. The time-zone mapping visually displays the evolution of keywords over time, intuitively reflecting the frequency and initial appearance of keywords in research, commonly used to identify trends in research topics (Jing et al. 2024a ; Kumar et al. 2021 ). Table 10 lists the top 15 keywords by burst strength, with the red sections indicating high-frequency citations and their burst strength in specific years. These burst keywords reveal the focus and trends of research themes over different periods (Kleinberg 2002 ). Combining insights from the time-zone mapping and burst keywords provides more objective and accurate research insights (Wang et al. 2023b ).

Reflecting the frequency and time of first appearance of keywords in the study.

An integrated analysis of Fig. 8 and Table 10 shows that early research on older adults’ technology acceptance primarily focused on factors such as perceived usefulness, ease of use, and attitudes towards information technology, including their use of computers and the internet (Pan and Jordan-Marsh 2010 ), as well as differences in technology use between older adults and other age groups (Guner and Acarturk 2020 ). Subsequently, the research focus expanded to improving the quality of life for older adults, exploring how technology can optimize health management and enhance the possibility of independent living, emphasizing the significant role of technology in improving the quality of life for the elderly. With ongoing technological advancements, recent research has shifted towards areas such as “virtual reality,” “telehealth,” and “human-robot interaction,” with a focus on the user experience of older adults (Halim et al. 2022 ). The appearance of keywords such as “physical activity” and “exercise” highlights the value of technology in promoting physical activity and health among older adults. This phase of research tends to make cutting-edge technology genuinely serve the practical needs of older adults, achieving its widespread application in daily life. Additionally, research has focused on expanding and quantifying theoretical models of older adults’ technology acceptance, involving keywords such as “perceived risk”, “validation” and “UTAUT”.

In summary, from 2013 to 2023, the field of older adults’ technology acceptance has evolved from initial explorations of influencing factors, to comprehensive enhancements in quality of life and health management, and further to the application and deepening of theoretical models and cutting-edge technologies. This research not only reflects the diversity and complexity of the field but also demonstrates a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of older adults’ interactions with technology across various life scenarios and needs.

Research quality distribution

To reveal the distribution of research quality in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, a strategic diagram analysis is employed to calculate and illustrate the internal development and interrelationships among various research themes (Xie et al. 2020 ). The strategic diagram uses Centrality as the X-axis and Density as the Y-axis to divide into four quadrants, where the X-axis represents the strength of the connection between thematic clusters and other themes, with higher values indicating a central position in the research field; the Y-axis indicates the level of development within the thematic clusters, with higher values denoting a more mature and widely recognized field (Li and Zhou 2020 ).

Through cluster analysis and manual verification, this study categorized 61 core keywords (Frequency ≥5) into 11 thematic clusters. Subsequently, based on the keywords covered by each thematic cluster, the research themes and their directions for each cluster were summarized (Table 11 ), and the centrality and density coordinates for each cluster were precisely calculated (Table 12 ). Finally, a strategic diagram of the older adults’ technology acceptance research field was constructed (Fig. 9 ). Based on the distribution of thematic clusters across the quadrants in the strategic diagram, the structure and developmental trends of the field were interpreted.

Classification and visualization of theme clusters based on density and centrality.

As illustrated in Fig. 9 , (1) the theme clusters of #3 Usage Experience and #4 Assisted Living Technology are in the first quadrant, characterized by high centrality and density. Their internal cohesion and close links with other themes indicate their mature development, systematic research content or directions have been formed, and they have a significant influence on other themes. These themes play a central role in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance and have promising prospects. (2) The theme clusters of #6 Smart Devices, #9 Theoretical Models, and #10 Mobile Health Applications are in the second quadrant, with higher density but lower centrality. These themes have strong internal connections but weaker external links, indicating that these three themes have received widespread attention from researchers and have been the subject of related research, but more as self-contained systems and exhibit independence. Therefore, future research should further explore in-depth cooperation and cross-application with other themes. (3) The theme clusters of #7 Human-Robot Interaction, #8 Characteristics of the Elderly, and #11 Research Methods are in the third quadrant, with lower centrality and density. These themes are loosely connected internally and have weak links with others, indicating their developmental immaturity. Compared to other topics, they belong to the lower attention edge and niche themes, and there is a need for further investigation. (4) The theme clusters of #1 Digital Healthcare Technology, #2 Psychological Factors, and #5 Socio-Cultural Factors are located in the fourth quadrant, with high centrality but low density. Although closely associated with other research themes, the internal cohesion within these clusters is relatively weak. This suggests that while these themes are closely linked to other research areas, their own development remains underdeveloped, indicating a core immaturity. Nevertheless, these themes are crucial within the research domain of elderly technology acceptance and possess significant potential for future exploration.

Discussion on distribution power (RQ1)

Over the past decade, academic interest and influence in the area of older adults’ technology acceptance have significantly increased. This trend is evidenced by a quantitative analysis of publication and citation volumes, particularly noticeable in 2019 and 2022, where there was a substantial rise in both metrics. The rise is closely linked to the widespread adoption of emerging technologies such as smart homes, wearable devices, and telemedicine among older adults. While these technologies have enhanced their quality of life, they also pose numerous challenges, sparking extensive research into their acceptance, usage behaviors, and influencing factors among the older adults (Pirzada et al. 2022 ; Garcia Reyes et al. 2023 ). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in technology demand among older adults, especially in areas like medical consultation, online socialization, and health management, further highlighting the importance and challenges of technology. Health risks and social isolation have compelled older adults to rely on technology for daily activities, accelerating its adoption and application within this demographic. This phenomenon has made technology acceptance a critical issue, driving societal and academic focus on the study of technology acceptance among older adults.

The flow of knowledge at the level of high-output disciplines and journals, along with the primary publishing outlets, indicates the highly interdisciplinary nature of research into older adults’ technology acceptance. This reflects the complexity and breadth of issues related to older adults’ technology acceptance, necessitating the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and approaches. Currently, research is primarily focused on medical health and human-computer interaction, demonstrating academic interest in improving health and quality of life for older adults and addressing the urgent needs related to their interactions with technology. In the field of medical health, research aims to provide advanced and innovative healthcare technologies and services to meet the challenges of an aging population while improving the quality of life for older adults (Abdi et al. 2020 ; Wilson et al. 2021 ). In the field of human-computer interaction, research is focused on developing smarter and more user-friendly interaction models to meet the needs of older adults in the digital age, enabling them to actively participate in social activities and enjoy a higher quality of life (Sayago, 2019 ). These studies are crucial for addressing the challenges faced by aging societies, providing increased support and opportunities for the health, welfare, and social participation of older adults.

Discussion on research power (RQ2)

This study analyzes leading countries and collaboration networks, core institutions and authors, revealing the global research landscape and distribution of research strength in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, and presents quantitative data on global research trends. From the analysis of country distribution and collaborations, China and the USA hold dominant positions in this field, with developed countries like the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands also excelling in international cooperation and research influence. The significant investment in technological research and the focus on the technological needs of older adults by many developed countries reflect their rapidly aging societies, policy support, and resource allocation.

China is the only developing country that has become a major contributor in this field, indicating its growing research capabilities and high priority given to aging societies and technological innovation. Additionally, China has close collaborations with countries such as USA, the UK, and Malaysia, driven not only by technological research needs but also by shared challenges and complementarities in aging issues among these nations. For instance, the UK has extensive experience in social welfare and aging research, providing valuable theoretical guidance and practical experience. International collaborations, aimed at addressing the challenges of aging, integrate the strengths of various countries, advancing in-depth and widespread development in the research of technology acceptance among older adults.

At the institutional and author level, City University of Hong Kong leads in publication volume, with research teams led by Chan and Chen demonstrating significant academic activity and contributions. Their research primarily focuses on older adults’ acceptance and usage behaviors of various technologies, including smartphones, smart wearables, and social robots (Chen et al. 2015 ; Li et al. 2019 ; Ma et al. 2016 ). These studies, targeting specific needs and product characteristics of older adults, have developed new models of technology acceptance based on existing frameworks, enhancing the integration of these technologies into their daily lives and laying a foundation for further advancements in the field. Although Tilburg University has a smaller publication output, it holds significant influence in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Particularly, the high citation rate of Peek’s studies highlights their excellence in research. Peek extensively explored older adults’ acceptance and usage of home care technologies, revealing the complexity and dynamics of their technology use behaviors. His research spans from identifying systemic influencing factors (Peek et al. 2014 ; Peek et al. 2016 ), emphasizing familial impacts (Luijkx et al. 2015 ), to constructing comprehensive models (Peek et al. 2017 ), and examining the dynamics of long-term usage (Peek et al. 2019 ), fully reflecting the evolving technology landscape and the changing needs of older adults. Additionally, the ongoing contributions of researchers like Ziefle, Rogers, and Wouters in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance demonstrate their research influence and leadership. These researchers have significantly enriched the knowledge base in this area with their diverse perspectives. For instance, Ziefle has uncovered the complex attitudes of older adults towards technology usage, especially the trade-offs between privacy and security, and how different types of activities affect their privacy needs (Maidhof et al. 2023 ; Mujirishvili et al. 2023 ; Schomakers and Ziefle 2023 ; Wilkowska et al. 2022 ), reflecting a deep exploration and ongoing innovation in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance.

Discussion on knowledge base and thematic progress (RQ3)

Through co-citation analysis and systematic review of seminal literature, this study reveals the knowledge foundation and thematic progress in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Co-citation networks and cluster analyses illustrate the structural themes of the research, delineating the differentiation and boundaries within this field. Additionally, burst detection analysis offers a valuable perspective for understanding the thematic evolution in the field of technology acceptance among older adults. The development and innovation of theoretical models are foundational to this research. Researchers enhance the explanatory power of constructed models by deepening and expanding existing technology acceptance theories to address theoretical limitations. For instance, Heerink et al. ( 2010 ) modified and expanded the UTAUT model by integrating functional assessment and social interaction variables to create the almere model. This model significantly enhances the ability to explain the intentions of older users in utilizing assistive social agents and improves the explanation of actual usage behaviors. Additionally, Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) extended the TAM to include age-related health and capability features of older adults, creating the STAM, which substantially improves predictions of older adults’ technology usage behaviors. Personal attributes, health and capability features, and facilitating conditions have a direct impact on technology acceptance. These factors more effectively predict older adults’ technology usage behaviors than traditional attitudinal factors.

With the advancement of technology and the application of emerging technologies, new research topics have emerged, increasingly focusing on older adults’ acceptance and use of these technologies. Prior to this, the study by Mitzner et al. ( 2010 ) challenged the stereotype of older adults’ conservative attitudes towards technology, highlighting the central roles of usability and usefulness in the technology acceptance process. This discovery laid an important foundation for subsequent research. Research fields such as “smart home technology,” “social life,” and “customer service” are emerging, indicating a shift in focus towards the practical and social applications of technology in older adults’ lives. Research not only focuses on the technology itself but also on how these technologies integrate into older adults’ daily lives and how they can improve the quality of life through technology. For instance, studies such as those by Ma et al. ( 2016 ), Hoque and Sorwar ( 2017 ), and Li et al. ( 2019 ) have explored factors influencing older adults’ use of smartphones, mHealth, and smart wearable devices.

Furthermore, the diversification of research methodologies and innovation in evaluation techniques, such as the use of mixed methods, structural equation modeling (SEM), and neural network (NN) approaches, have enhanced the rigor and reliability of the findings, enabling more precise identification of the factors and mechanisms influencing technology acceptance. Talukder et al. ( 2020 ) employed an effective multimethodological strategy by integrating SEM and NN to leverage the complementary strengths of both approaches, thus overcoming their individual limitations and more accurately analyzing and predicting older adults’ acceptance of wearable health technologies (WHT). SEM is utilized to assess the determinants’ impact on the adoption of WHT, while neural network models validate SEM outcomes and predict the significance of key determinants. This combined approach not only boosts the models’ reliability and explanatory power but also provides a nuanced understanding of the motivations and barriers behind older adults’ acceptance of WHT, offering deep research insights.

Overall, co-citation analysis of the literature in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance has uncovered deeper theoretical modeling and empirical studies on emerging technologies, while emphasizing the importance of research methodological and evaluation innovations in understanding complex social science issues. These findings are crucial for guiding the design and marketing strategies of future technology products, especially in the rapidly growing market of older adults.

Discussion on research hotspots and evolutionary trends (RQ4)

By analyzing core keywords, we can gain deep insights into the hot topics, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution of research in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. The frequent occurrence of the keywords “TAM” and “UTAUT” indicates that the applicability and theoretical extension of existing technology acceptance models among older adults remain a focal point in academia. This phenomenon underscores the enduring influence of the studies by Davis ( 1989 ) and Venkatesh et al. ( 2003 ), whose models provide a robust theoretical framework for explaining and predicting older adults’ acceptance and usage of emerging technologies. With the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies, these theoretical models have incorporated new variables such as perceived risk, trust, and privacy issues (Amin et al. 2024 ; Chen et al. 2024 ; Jing et al. 2024b ; Seibert et al. 2021 ; Wang et al. 2024b ), advancing the theoretical depth and empirical research in this field.

Keyword co-occurrence cluster analysis has revealed multiple research hotspots in the field, including factors influencing technology adoption, interactive experiences between older adults and assistive technologies, the application of mobile health technology in health management, and technology-assisted home care. These studies primarily focus on enhancing the quality of life and health management of older adults through emerging technologies, particularly in the areas of ambient assisted living, smart health monitoring, and intelligent medical care. In these domains, the role of AI technology is increasingly significant (Qian et al. 2021 ; Ho 2020 ). With the evolution of next-generation information technologies, AI is increasingly integrated into elder care systems, offering intelligent, efficient, and personalized service solutions by analyzing the lifestyles and health conditions of older adults. This integration aims to enhance older adults’ quality of life in aspects such as health monitoring and alerts, rehabilitation assistance, daily health management, and emotional support (Lee et al. 2023 ). A survey indicates that 83% of older adults prefer AI-driven solutions when selecting smart products, demonstrating the increasing acceptance of AI in elder care (Zhao and Li 2024 ). Integrating AI into elder care presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in terms of user acceptance, trust, and long-term usage effects, which warrant further exploration (Mhlanga 2023 ). These studies will help better understand the profound impact of AI technology on the lifestyles of older adults and provide critical references for optimizing AI-driven elder care services.

The Time-zone evolution mapping and burst keyword analysis further reveal the evolutionary trends of research hotspots. Early studies focused on basic technology acceptance models and user perceptions, later expanding to include quality of life and health management. In recent years, research has increasingly focused on cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality, telehealth, and human-robot interaction, with a concurrent emphasis on the user experience of older adults. This evolutionary process demonstrates a deepening shift from theoretical models to practical applications, underscoring the significant role of technology in enhancing the quality of life for older adults. Furthermore, the strategic coordinate mapping analysis clearly demonstrates the development and mutual influence of different research themes. High centrality and density in the themes of Usage Experience and Assisted Living Technology indicate their mature research status and significant impact on other themes. The themes of Smart Devices, Theoretical Models, and Mobile Health Applications demonstrate self-contained research trends. The themes of Human-Robot Interaction, Characteristics of the Elderly, and Research Methods are not yet mature, but they hold potential for development. Themes of Digital Healthcare Technology, Psychological Factors, and Socio-Cultural Factors are closely related to other themes, displaying core immaturity but significant potential.

In summary, the research hotspots in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance are diverse and dynamic, demonstrating the academic community’s profound understanding of how older adults interact with technology across various life contexts and needs. Under the influence of AI and big data, research should continue to focus on the application of emerging technologies among older adults, exploring in depth how they adapt to and effectively use these technologies. This not only enhances the quality of life and healthcare experiences for older adults but also drives ongoing innovation and development in this field.

Research agenda

Based on the above research findings, to further understand and promote technology acceptance and usage among older adults, we recommend future studies focus on refining theoretical models, exploring long-term usage, and assessing user experience in the following detailed aspects:

Refinement and validation of specific technology acceptance models for older adults: Future research should focus on developing and validating technology acceptance models based on individual characteristics, particularly considering variations in technology acceptance among older adults across different educational levels and cultural backgrounds. This includes factors such as age, gender, educational background, and cultural differences. Additionally, research should examine how well specific technologies, such as wearable devices and mobile health applications, meet the needs of older adults. Building on existing theoretical models, this research should integrate insights from multiple disciplines such as psychology, sociology, design, and engineering through interdisciplinary collaboration to create more accurate and comprehensive models, which should then be validated in relevant contexts.

Deepening the exploration of the relationship between long-term technology use and quality of life among older adults: The acceptance and use of technology by users is a complex and dynamic process (Seuwou et al. 2016 ). Existing research predominantly focuses on older adults’ initial acceptance or short-term use of new technologies; however, the impact of long-term use on their quality of life and health is more significant. Future research should focus on the evolution of older adults’ experiences and needs during long-term technology usage, and the enduring effects of technology on their social interactions, mental health, and life satisfaction. Through longitudinal studies and qualitative analysis, this research reveals the specific needs and challenges of older adults in long-term technology use, providing a basis for developing technologies and strategies that better meet their requirements. This understanding aids in comprehensively assessing the impact of technology on older adults’ quality of life and guiding the optimization and improvement of technological products.

Evaluating the Importance of User Experience in Research on Older Adults’ Technology Acceptance: Understanding the mechanisms of information technology acceptance and use is central to human-computer interaction research. Although technology acceptance models and user experience models differ in objectives, they share many potential intersections. Technology acceptance research focuses on structured prediction and assessment, while user experience research concentrates on interpreting design impacts and new frameworks. Integrating user experience to assess older adults’ acceptance of technology products and systems is crucial (Codfrey et al. 2022 ; Wang et al. 2019 ), particularly for older users, where specific product designs should emphasize practicality and usability (Fisk et al. 2020 ). Researchers need to explore innovative age-appropriate design methods to enhance older adults’ usage experience. This includes studying older users’ actual usage preferences and behaviors, optimizing user interfaces, and interaction designs. Integrating feedback from older adults to tailor products to their needs can further promote their acceptance and continued use of technology products.

Conclusions

This study conducted a systematic review of the literature on older adults’ technology acceptance over the past decade through bibliometric analysis, focusing on the distribution power, research power, knowledge base and theme progress, research hotspots, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this study has reached the following conclusions:

Technology acceptance among older adults has become a hot topic in the international academic community, involving the integration of knowledge across multiple disciplines, including Medical Informatics, Health Care Sciences Services, and Ergonomics. In terms of journals, “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, HEALTH” represents a leading field, with key publications including Computers in Human Behavior , Journal of Medical Internet Research , and International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction . These journals possess significant academic authority and extensive influence in the field.

Research on technology acceptance among older adults is particularly active in developed countries, with China and USA publishing significantly more than other nations. The Netherlands leads in high average citation rates, indicating the depth and impact of its research. Meanwhile, the UK stands out in terms of international collaboration. At the institutional level, City University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong in China are in leading positions. Tilburg University in the Netherlands demonstrates exceptional research quality through its high average citation count. At the author level, Chen from China has the highest number of publications, while Peek from the Netherlands has the highest average citation count.

Co-citation analysis of references indicates that the knowledge base in this field is divided into three main categories: theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, and research methods and evaluation. Seminal literature focuses on four areas: specific technology use by older adults, expansion of theoretical models of technology acceptance, information technology adoption behavior, and research perspectives. Research themes have evolved from initial theoretical deepening and analysis of influencing factors to empirical studies on individual factors and emerging technologies.

Keyword analysis indicates that TAM and UTAUT are the most frequently occurring terms, while “assistive technology” and “virtual reality” are focal points with high frequency and centrality. Keyword clustering analysis reveals that research hotspots are concentrated on the influencing factors of technology adoption, human-robot interaction experiences, mobile health management, and technology for aging in place. Time-zone evolution mapping and burst keyword analysis have revealed the research evolution from preliminary exploration of influencing factors, to enhancements in quality of life and health management, and onto advanced technology applications and deepening of theoretical models. Furthermore, analysis of research quality distribution indicates that Usage Experience and Assisted Living Technology have become core topics, while Smart Devices, Theoretical Models, and Mobile Health Applications point towards future research directions.

Through this study, we have systematically reviewed the dynamics, core issues, and evolutionary trends in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, constructing a comprehensive Knowledge Mapping of the domain and presenting a clear framework of existing research. This not only lays the foundation for subsequent theoretical discussions and innovative applications in the field but also provides an important reference for relevant scholars.

Limitations

To our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis concerning technology acceptance among older adults, and we adhered strictly to bibliometric standards throughout our research. However, this study relies on the Web of Science Core Collection, and while its authority and breadth are widely recognized, this choice may have missed relevant literature published in other significant databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, potentially overlooking some critical academic contributions. Moreover, given that our analysis was confined to literature in English, it may not reflect studies published in other languages, somewhat limiting the global representativeness of our data sample.

It is noteworthy that with the rapid development of AI technology, its increasingly widespread application in elderly care services is significantly transforming traditional care models. AI is profoundly altering the lifestyles of the elderly, from health monitoring and smart diagnostics to intelligent home systems and personalized care, significantly enhancing their quality of life and health care standards. The potential for AI technology within the elderly population is immense, and research in this area is rapidly expanding. However, due to the restrictive nature of the search terms used in this study, it did not fully cover research in this critical area, particularly in addressing key issues such as trust, privacy, and ethics.

Consequently, future research should not only expand data sources, incorporating multilingual and multidatabase literature, but also particularly focus on exploring older adults’ acceptance of AI technology and its applications, in order to construct a more comprehensive academic landscape of older adults’ technology acceptance, thereby enriching and extending the knowledge system and academic trends in this field.

Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the Dataverse repository: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/6K0GJH .

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This research was supported by the Social Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province in China (Grant No. 2023J014).

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Shang, X., Liu, Z., Gong, C. et al. Knowledge mapping and evolution of research on older adults’ technology acceptance: a bibliometric study from 2013 to 2023. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1115 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03658-2

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Biodiversity types ecosystems and threats to biodiversity

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133 Biodiversity Essay Topics & Samples
Biodiversity is measured in terms of attributes that explore the quality of nature; richness and evenness of the living organisms within an ecological niche. Biodiversity, Its Importance and Benefits. Apart from that, the paper is going to speculate on the most and least diverse species in the local area.
(PDF) Biodiversity: Concept, Threats and Conservation
Biodiversity is the variety of different forms of life on earth, including the different plants, animals, micro-organisms, the. genes they contain and the ecosystem they form. It refers to genetic ...
Biodiversity
Research on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships tends to focus on single trophic groups. This analysis of two biodiversity experiments, representing forests and grasslands, shows ...
Biodiversity conservation in a changing environment beyond 2020
With the overarching goal to sustainably provide sufficient food for people while conserving and restoring biodiversity, Delabre et al. (7) examine how, and under what conditions, the post-2020 global biodiversity framework can support leverage points for transformative change, with a specific focus on food production and consumption.
Biodiversity: Concepts, Patterns, Trends, and Perspectives
Biodiversity, a term now widely employed in science, policy, and wider society, has a burgeoning associated literature. We synthesize aspects of this literature, focusing on several key concepts, debates, patterns, trends, and drivers. We review the history of the term and the multiple dimensions and values of biodiversity, and we explore what is known and not known about global patterns of ...
Global trends and biases in biodiversity conservation research
Biodiversity loss continues to accelerate despite decades of international conservation initiatives aimed at its prevention. Human impacts are a key factor, resulting in Earth's sixth mass extinction event 1, 2, 3; current extinction rates in the Anthropocene Epoch are 10-100 times greater than in the last 10 million years. 4 Halting biodiversity loss has therefore become a global priority ...
Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural
It is beyond the scope of this paper to describe such arguments, but philosophers have discussed the ethics of biodiversity conservation 7,8,9 and social scientists have identified public support ...
PDF Building a truly diverse biodiversity science
Biodiversity research is also a science of crisis. Global change is ... conventional papers that foster discussion in established topics or open new research avenues21, ...
The Society for Conservation Biology
Conservation Biology, the flagship journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, is the leading journal in the field of conservation.Its ground-breaking research articles, essays, and reviews develop new theory and methods, define key problems, and propose solutions, exploring the social, ecological, and philosophical dimensions of the conservation of biological diversity.
Expert perspectives on global biodiversity loss and its drivers and
We identified biodiversity experts as corresponding authors of papers published in scientific journals over the past decade on the topic of biodiversity (WebPanel 1). ... (DEB-1545288, DEB-1845334, DBI-2021898). NE gratefully acknowledges the support of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig funded by ...
Biodiversity, a review of the concept, measurement, opportunities, and
Biodiversity is a crucial part of nature's precious assets that provide many human needs and insures against environmental disasters. Scientists have not yet reached a consensus on the definition ...
Editorial: Biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services
For this Research Topic of Biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services: Interrelationship with environmental and human health we published a wide array of papers at different angles from a local scale with microbiomes, plants, microarthropods, to reach scale with fish, to riparian landscapes for accessing aesthetic quality. The intention of ...
Nature's Secrets: Top 200 Ecology Research Topics
Top 50 Ecology Essay Topics. In addition to the above topics we are giving you a bonus of top 50 ecology essay topics based on different categories and they are as: Top 10 Essay Research Topics On Environmental Sustainability. Climate Change Impacts and Mitigation Strategies; Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Restoration
Hot topics in biodiversity and climate change research
Relative growth of refereed studies on climate change and biodiversity, compared to non-climate-related biodiversity research. Number of refereed papers listed in the Web of Science database that were published between 2001 and 2014 on the specific topic "biodiversity AND (climate change)" (blue line, secondary y-axis) compared to the more general search term "biodiversity NOT (climate ...
Biodiversity & Conservation
For many ecologists, conserving biodiversity is a critical part of their mission. Biodiversity refers to the diversity of life—on a planet, in a watershed, or in a single stream. It's often used to describe how many different species live in a certain area. But biodiversity can just as easily refer to diversity within a single species or ...
Biodiversity faces its make-or-break year, and research will be key
It aims to slow down the rate of biodiversity loss by 2030. And by 2050, biodiversity will be "valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy ...
Freshwater biodiversity at different habitats: Research hotspots with
Furthermore, the current research on freshwater biodiversity still lacks research on well-developed themes and evolution of hot topics. Despite many outstanding and comprehensive reviews on freshwater biodiversity (e.g. Strayer and Dudgeon, 2010 , Dudgeon et al., 2006 , Albert et al., 2020 ), a global trend of biodiversity in various freshwater ...
Research on Biodiversity and Climate Change at a Distance ...
Biodiversity loss and climate change are both globally significant issues that must be addressed through collaboration across countries and disciplines. With the December 2015 COP21 climate conference in Paris and the recent creation of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), it has become critical to evaluate the capacity for global research networks to ...
Scientific research on animal biodiversity is systematically ...
Over the last 25 years, research on biodiversity has expanded dramatically, fuelled by increasing threats to the natural world. However, the number of published studies is heavily weighted towards certain taxa, perhaps influencing conservation awareness of and funding for less-popular groups. Few studies have systematically quantified these biases, although information on this topic is ...
Frontiers in Conservation Science
Protected Area Management and Large and Medium-Sized Mammal Conservation. Biao Yang. Qiang Dai. Zaneta Kaszta. 5,302 views. 3 articles. This multidisciplinary journal explores ecology, biology and social sciences to advance conservation and management. It advances the knowledge required to meet or surpass global biodiversity and c...
Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation
About this book series. Springer's book series, Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation, brings together some of the most exciting and topical papers in biodiversity and conservation research. The result is a series of useful themed collections covering issues such as the diversity and conservation of specific habitats or groups of organisms ...
Biodiversity Studies
Harvard Forest 324 North Main Street Petersham, MA 01366-9504 Tel (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595 Contact us
Research Topics
The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group studies the structure, function and change of terrestrial ecosystems by using plants, vegetation and soil as integrative key features in landscape ecology. Processes of global change especially of man-made climate and land use changes as well as changes in biogeochemical cycles are studied on local ...
Knowledge mapping and evolution of research on older adults ...
Research method. In recent years, bibliometrics has become one of the crucial methods for analyzing literature reviews and is widely used in disciplinary and industrial intelligence analysis (Jing ...

133 Biodiversity Topics & Examples

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Peer Review Summary

Introduction

Filtering and categorising the publications

Analysis of trends, biases and gaps

Key findings of the highly cited paper collection for 2012–2014

Future directions

Funding Statement

Referee response for version 1

Jonathan Rhodes

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Biodiversity Assessment

Fish & Fisheries

Orchids, Fungi & Symbioses

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Stream Ecology

Scientific research on animal biodiversity is systematically biased towards vertebrates and temperate regions

Introduction

Materials & methods

Data collection

Data analysis

Taxonomic biases

Comparing tropical and temperate regions

Differences in title phrasing

Geographic biases

The taxonomic bias

The geographic bias

Redressing biases

Supporting information

Acknowledgments

Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation

Book titles in this series

Biodiversity of the Himalaya: Jammu and Kashmir State

Naturalists, Explorers and Field Scientists in South-East Asia and Australasia

Bioprospecting

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