Ecological security research progress in China

In the last two decades, China has experienced extensive economic development and urbanization. The consequential loss and degradation of natural resources and resulting environment pollution may adversely affect human health. As global changes ensue, ecological security becomes one hotspot of researches and practices all over the world. Based on the literature analysis from 1985 to 2012 and bibliometric methods, this paper examines the current research stage, contents and emerging topics of ecological security in China. Ecological security researches in China go through two stages: the conceptual and theoretical framework exploratory stage (1985–1999) and the theory formation and practical development stage (2000–2012). In the exploratory stage, researchers mainly focused upon ecological problems at the global and national level, rather than the local or regional level. Research hotspots involved national security strategy, ecological risk assessment, landscape ecology and ecological balance, all of which were not correlated tightly. During this period, researches concerning ecological security were still exploring the concept of ecological security and tried to form its theoretical framework and technical methods. In the practical stage, researchers examined concepts, spatial patterns, assessments and management systems of ecological security, especially the ecological security assessment index system. During this period, the research methods shifted from conceptual and exploratory qualitative analysis to quantitative analysis, including mathematical models, and digital terrain models, etc.; the research content developed from a theoretical exploration to a case study approach. We also reviewed the historical research of ecological security in China and suggest a research framework involving different research scales, different research objectives, and different research methods. Our statistical findings show that ecological security research on global and regional scales is one topic of increased research activity. From the perspective of research goals, the current focus is biodiversity conservation. Next, from the view of the research subject, environmental science is most frequently studied among domestic researchers on ecological security. The number of published articles concerning ecological security accounts for 40.73% of the total. Finally, in terms of sustentation funds, the fund of the ecological security research is mainly from Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), accounting for 38.01% of the total funds support. A total of 1178 papers were awarded sustentation funds, accounting for 23.83%. Our study summarized the research progress of ecological security assessment, ecological security warning, ecological security maintenance and ecological security patterns. Thus based on these statistic data and analysis, ecological security research in China may be emphasized from the following aspects: (1) to form the theoretical system of ecological security and to integrate the technical methods; (2) to improve ecological security warning mechanisms and environmental monitoring; and (3) to improve ecological security maintenance and management system. In conclusion, we believe ecological security warning and ecological security patterns will be given more attention in the future research. The correlation research will develop from the previously exploratory qualitative research and status analysis to the quantitative research and dynamic warning. At the same time, by using ‘3S’ space technology and combining with the disciplines/professions of geography, environmental science, ecology, landscape ecology, restoration ecology and economics, there may be a stronger establishment of grounded ecological security knowledge. Therefore, the ecological security evaluation index system and grading standards of the evaluation results will be gradually integrated and improved plus the dynamic evaluation, simulation and warning research will be strengthened.