Emerging Insights into Climate, Forest and Wildlife Dynamics: Global Research Patterns, Interdisciplinary Developments, and Conservation Implications

Abstract

The accelerating impacts of climate change, widespread forest degradation, and escalating biodiversity loss have intensified global concern about the complex and interdependent relationships among climate, forest, and wildlife systems. These interactions influence ecosystem structure, habitat suitability, species distribution, and wildlife behaviour, thereby reshaping human and natural systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Over the past two decades, scientific literature addressing climate, forest, and wildlife dynamics has expanded significantly, exhibiting an annual growth rate of 15.06%, driven by advances in ecological modelling,            remote sensing, biodiversity monitoring, climate analytics, and international conservation and  policy frameworks. This study employs a comprehensive bibliometric approach to systematically examine the evolution, structure, and collaborative patterns of global research on climate, forest, and wildlife interactions. A total of 8,271 documents published between 2000 and 2025 were retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, spanning 1,423 scholarly sources. The dataset included 19,760 author keywords and 20,933 Keywords Plus, reflecting the thematic breadth and conceptual diversity of the field. Bibliographic records were analysed using the Bibliometrix package in RStudio to evaluate publication trends, source dynamics, citation impact, thematic diversity, keyword evolution, authorship patterns, and international collaboration networks, thereby revealing the intellectual structure and developmental trajectory of this research domain. The findings indicate that this field is rapidly expanding, strongly interdisciplinary, and characterized by robust collaboration alongside an increasingly diverse thematic scope. While the diversity of keywords and publication sources reflects conceptual richness and methodological innovation, it also highlights the absence of a standardized vocabulary and limited thematic consolidation. Growing global collaboration further underscores the increasing relevance of climate, forest, and wildlife research in addressing contemporary environmental challenges and informing policy decisions.