# Research Frontiers in the Field of Agricultural Resources and the Environment
## 3 Results
### Verification of Frontier Identification Method  
The obtained research frontier was compared with the global agricultural research hot spot frontier results in 2022 developed by the Institute of Agricultural Information, within the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, to verify the scientific nature of this study, which was based on the LDA theme model and frontier indicator system. Based on the data in the SCI papers and CSCD papers on the Web of Science platform (2017-2021), the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences extracted highly co-cited papers (i.e., papers with the top 1% citation frequency in the same year) from the ESI database, and the core topic cluster composed of highly co-cited papers and cited papers was regarded as the hot spot frontier. Through paper classification mapping, combined with co-citation theory, the semantic clustering method, index screening, expert interviews, and qualitative and quantitative analysis, 71 agricultural research hot spots in 9 major agricultural disciplines in 2022 were selected from the initial 989 agricultural topic data. Among them, the hot frontiers in the field of agricultural resources and the environment mainly focus on the rhizosphere ecological environment, soil carbon and nitrogen fixation mechanism, fertilizer \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Category** & **Research Frontiers** & **Emerging** & **Innovation** & **Attention** & **Cross** & **Comprehensive Score** & **Frontier Type** \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{1 a} & Interaction mechanism of plant–rhizosphere– microbial diversity & 2018.64 & 0.287 & 11.098 & 6.518 & 0.971 & Hot frontier \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{1 a} & Wastewater treatment technology and the efficient utilization of water resources, NIFA project & 2018.68 & 0.311 & 0.95 & 6.389 & 0.863 & Potential frontier \\  & & & & & & & \\ \cline{1-1}  & Value-added utilization and sustainable development of agricultural waste, NIFA Project & 2018.74 & 0.251 & 0.95 & 7.090 & 0.930 & Potential frontier \\ \cline{1-1}  & Ecosystems management and pollution control related to agricultural and animal husbandry, NIFA project & 2018.74 & 0.189 & 0.94 & 6.401 & 0.672 & Emerging frontier \\ \cline{1-1}  & Soil ecological response mechanism under agronomic management measures, SCI Paper Mechanism of soil landslide, erosion, degradation, and prediction evaluation, SCI Paper & 2018.67 & 0.254 & 10.423 & 1.92 & 0.855 & Potential frontier \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: 1 refers to a coexisting theme, 2 refers to a non-coexisting theme.  
\end{table} 
Table 5: Comparative analysis of frontiers between the NIFA project and global SCI papers. research and development, plant beneficial bacteria resistance, and soil-crop management. The results are shown in Table 6.  
The results showed that the frontier concerning the \"interaction mechanism of plant-rhizosphere-microbial diversity\" proposed in this study covers many research hotspots, such as the \"response and mechanism of soil and rhizosphere microorganisms compared to land use patterns\", the \"effect and mechanism of growth-promoting and stress-resistant plant beneficial bacteria \", the \"assembly patterns and control mechanism of the root microbiome\", and the \"microbial mechanism of soil nitrogen transformation and its agronomic environmental effects\", which were similar to the research hot spots obtained by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences based on the data from the ESI highly co-cited papers.