Mangroves are prevalent coastal ecosystems along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Colombia, with several structural features and service provisions that make them important regionally and globally. Despite this importance and the existence of national laws to protect them, research on these ecosystems has been historically scarce if compared to the terrestrial ecosystems of the country. Here, we analyse historical trends of mangrove research in Colombia for the time period 1900 until 2018. To do so, a systematic literature search was carried out based on the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and Google Scholar scientific citation databases. A noticeable increase in the number of mangrove studies in Colombia was found in the 2001–2010 decade. Although the Colombian Pacific contains ca. 80% of the country's mangroves, a greater number of mangrove studies has been conducted on the Caribbean coast. Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, a degraded but productive coastal lagoon, is by far the most studied mangrove site in Colombia. Google Scholar was able to capture ∼10 times more studies (mostly grey literature and peer reviewed articles in Spanish) than the Web of Science and Scopus databases, indicating the need to include this type of information in systematic reviews. We propose that future mangrove research in Colombia should prioritize: (1) historically understudied areas where degradation threats are strongest (e.g. near planned infrastructure projects), (2) areas poorly examined but likely to contain healthy, carbon-rich and tall mangroves (e.g. most of the Pacific coast) and (3) interdisciplinary studies that provide for a more holistic social-ecological understanding of Colombian mangrove systems. Our broad synthesis approach is applicable to other countries or regions with extensive mangrove areas and it is likely to help scoping future research and conservation efforts in these ecosystems.

红树林是哥伦比亚太平洋和加勒比海沿岸普遍的沿海生态系统，具有多种结构特征和服务条款，使其在区域和全球范围内都很重要。尽管具有这种重要性，并且存在保护它们的国家法律，但与该国的陆地生态系统相比，对这些生态系统的研究在历史上一直很少。在这里，我们分析了1900年至2018年期间哥伦比亚红树林研究的历史趋势。为此，我们基于Web of Science（WoS），Scopus和Google Scholar科学引用数据库进行了系统的文献检索。在2001年至2010年的十年中，哥伦比亚对红树林的研究数量显着增加。虽然哥伦比亚太平洋包含约。该国80％的红树林，在加勒比海沿岸进行了更多的红树林研究。CiénagaGrande de Santa Marta，一个退化但生产力很高的沿海泻湖，是迄今为止哥伦比亚研究最多的红树林地。与Web of Science和Scopus数据库相比，Google Scholar能够捕获的研究（大多数是灰色文献和西班牙语同行评审文章）的研究量大约是Web of Science和Scopus数据库的10倍以上，这表明需要在系统评价中包括此类信息。我们建议在哥伦比亚进行的未来红树林研究应优先考虑：（1）历史上研究不足的地区，其退化威胁最大（例如，在计划中的基础设施项目附近），（2）区域检查不充分，但可能包含健康，富含碳和高红树林的地区（例如 （3）跨学科研究，这些研究提供了对哥伦比亚红树林系统更全面的社会生态学理解。我们广泛的综合方法适用于红树林面积较大的其他国家或地区，并且可能有助于确定这些生态系统的未来研究和保护工作。