Análise bibliométrica da produção científica sobre dendrocronologia tropical

Abstract

Trees are a source of valuable information about the environment, as they record the annual climate variation in the growth rings in the wood. The objective of this work was to quantify and describe the scientific production on dendrochronology of tree species in tropical forests, through the application of bibliometric techniques. It sought to evaluate the research situation, bring a historical and evolutionary context of the investigations on the subject, in addition to guiding future research by detecting gaps. A total of 614 articles indexed between 1987 and 2024 in the Web of Science database were analyzed, and the Bibliometrix and VOSviewer tools were used to visualize data on indicators of the number of publications and academic impact, scientific collaborations, and most used terms. The study showed an increase in the number of publications, especially from 2004 onwards, with emphasis on the United States, China and Brazil. It was also evident that the use of anatomical and chemical analyses of tree growth rings for climate reconstruction and for measuring tree growth rates. These studies are important to infer about the resilience of forest populations to climate change and to define the basis for sustainable forest management. The confirmation of annual growth rings in tropical trees has allowed advances in the scientific understanding of several subareas of research such as dendroarchaeology, dendroclimatology, dendrohydrology, dendroecology and dendrogeomorphology. The most frequently cited keywords were "tree rings", "dendrochronology" and "climate change". The evolution of the themes allows us to infer that the main environmental factor that conditions exchange dormancy in tropical forests is the water regime, which is directly linked to the reduction or paralysis of growth due to water deficit and the stimulation of xylogenesis in the rainy months. In recent years, research on radiocarbon isotopes has identified gaps in the areas of oxygen (δ 18 O), hydrogen (δD), and carbon (δ 13 C) isotopes. New approaches seek to improve analyses, including Quantitative Wood Anatomy (QWA), X-ray fluorescence and densitometry, and wood autofluorescence.