Purpose

Phosphorus (P) occurs in soils in organic and inorganic forms with different levels of lability. A considerable portion of this nutrient accumulates in soil with variable recalcitrance. This accumulated P fraction is known as P legacy. In this article, we conducted the first bibliometric analysis of the global scientific publication on the dynamics and P legacy in soil, thus mapping the science that produced and determined the trend of research topics.

Material and methods

We performed a quantitative bibliometric analysis based on journal articles indexed in the Web of Science data platform in the last 50 years, including 2019. We evaluated a) evolution of publications over time, b) most influential countries, c) most influential institutions, d) most influential authors, e) research areas, f) number of citations per article, g) main journals, h) most studied topics, i) scientific collaboration between countries, and j) scientific collaboration between institutions. We used the h-index as an indicator of citation and of the impact of publications. We used the bibliometric software tool VOSviewer to identify the main topics studied and scientific collaborations between different countries and institutions.

Results and discussion

The USA (25.0%), China (19.6%), and Germany (7.3%) were the countries with greatest scientific contributions. The journals Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis (3.4%) and Plant and Soil (3.37%) had the highest numbers of articles published. Chinese Academy of Science (7.11%) and US Department of Agriculture (2.58%) were the organizations that most contributed to the total publications. The most studied theme was “organic phosphorus” (n = 1282). We identified an intense international collaboration in publications involving the dynamics of P fractions in the soil, especially of USA (668), China (468), and Germany (381) with other countries. The theme “P legacy” was used to describe the availability of P to plants. However, some studies have described the P legacy as a source of environmental contamination of soil and water resources by P excess.

Conclusions

Studies involving the different P fractions and P legacy in soil go beyond the interest of soil scientists focused on agricultural exploitation, with a growing number of publications related to environmental sciences, ecology, and water resources, which demonstrates the multidisciplinary character of the studies involving P dynamics in soil. The results of this study provide basis to implement new research projects and collaborations that contribute to the understanding of P dynamics in the edaphic environment.