Seed traits (ST) influence seedling establishment, population dynamics, community composition and ecosystem function and reflect the adaptability of plants and the environmental conditions they experienced. There has been a historical and global accumulation of studies on ST, but with few pertaining to visual and quantitative analyses. To understand the trends in the field of ST research in the past 30 years, we conducted a bibliometric analysis based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) database. The analysis provided annual publications, time trends for keywords, the most productive journals, authors, institutions and countries, and a comprehensive overview of the ST field. Our results showed that in the past 30 years, the number of publications in ST research has increased at an average annual growth rate of 9.1%, while the average number of citations per paper per year showed a rapid increase–slow increase–decrease trend. Keyword analysis showed that “germination” was the most popular research section. Crop Science ranked first among the top journals and Theoretical and Applied Genetics had greater influence in this area and more citations than other journals. The 10 most productive institutions were mostly located in the United States, China and Australia. Furthermore, the three countries also had the largest number of publications and citations. Our analysis showed that the research interests in ST have evolved from genetics and agricultural science to ecological research over the last thirty years; as more fields embrace ST research, there are opportunities for international and interdisciplinary collaborations, cooperative institutions and new advances in the field.

Understanding how fires impact the carbon cycle is crucial for developing effective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Although there is a substantial global body of research on fire carbon cycle (FCC), there are relatively few studies offering graphical and quantitative analyses. To assess the trends in FCC research from 1989 to 2023, we performed a bibliometric analysis using the Science Citation Index—Expanded database. A total of 2408 publications were analyzed in this study. The results revealed that from 1989 to 2023, the quantity of publications in the field of FCC studies increased significantly. However, the average number of citations per paper per year first increased rapidly, followed by a slow increase, and then a decline. The top 10 institutions contributing to FCC research were predominantly based in the United States and the United Kingdom, with these countries also leading in the number of publications and citations. Beyond the keywords “fire” and “carbon” used in collecting literature, “climate-change” and “dynamic” were the top two most prominent research focuses. The topic of research has shifted from 1989 to 2023. Climate, vegetation, and emissions were the basic themes, which were important but not well developed, and will be the focus of future research. Along with climate change, research will focus more and more on fire emissions and modeling.