Abstract:In this paper, we used the method of bibliometric analysis to review the documents related to the study on biological resources and ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin of China and indexed CNKI database. We first created descriptive statistics of the number of articles published annually and the journal frequency distribution. Then, the methods of author, institution cooperation network and keyword based knowledge mapping and burst analysis were used to explore the hotspots and the recent frontiers.Descriptive statistics suggested that the number of research documents presented an increasing trend, and began to increase sharply in 2016. Authors and institutions have formed few frequent and stable cooperative relations.Most authors cooperation was limited to the researchers within the institution. The relatively active institutions cooperated among Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute, Yangtze River Water Resources Protection Bureau and Yangtze Water Resources Commission. Environmental science, regional economics, hydraulic engineering, agricultural economy are the dominant disciplines. Results of the burst analysis of the most recent document hotspots showed that the current research in biological resources and ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin of China has four study frontiers:(1) carrying out research on ecological environment assessment and protection, urbanization and ecological civilization construction, and green development of urban agglomerations in Yangtze River Economic Zone; (2) research on ecological environment monitoring and protection, forest resources conservation, soil and water conservation and erosion, resources and ecological compensation mechanism and sustainable development of ecological environment in the Three Gorges and Three Gorges Reservoir areas; (3) Research on ecological environmental protection and planning, ecological red line, conservation of biological resources and biodiversity conservation in natural protection area of the Yangtze River Basin; (4) Under the background of the Yangtze River integrated protection program, carry out research on the protection and restoration of the aquatic biological resources, ecological environment, comprehensive management and the rational development and utilization of the aquatic biological resources; (5) Research on hydropower resources development, water environment protection and fishery eco-environment protection in the source area of Yangtze River.In order to manage and protect the important biological resources scientifically in the Yangtze River Basin,we suggest that we should establish scientific design monitoring system, and construct biological data models for fishery resources and ecosystems in the whole river basin, develop risk assessment and decision-making system for the conservation and development of fishery resources, and build scientific technological system for the proliferation and release, and develop GIS-based monitoring system for fishery resources and environment in the Yangtze River Basin.
