# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Marine and coastal ecosystems Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/marine-and-coastal-ecosystems/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Marine and coastal ecosystems research in the Class of 2026?

Marine and coastal ecosystems research in the Class of 2026 is anchored by primary production, coastal eutrophication, and dissolved organic matter dynamics. Major expansions feature surges in oxygen tolerance, phytoplankton community modeling, and land-ocean continuum transport, while broad sea surface temperature monitoring and general satellite remote sensing experienced relative declines.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Marine and coastal ecosystems |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 6,137 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Chlorophyll a, primary production, eutrophication, dissolved organic matter (DOM) |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 30–137 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga | Tyler H Coale, Valentina Loconte, Kendra A Turk-Kubo, Bieke Vanslembrouck, Wing Kwan Esther Mak, Shunyan Cheung, Axel Ekman, Jian-Hua Chen, Kyoko Hagino, Yoshihito Takano, Tomohiro Nishimura, Masao Adachi, Mark Le Gros, Carolyn Larabell, Jonathan P Zehr | Tyler H. Coale, Valentina Loconte, Jonathan P. Zehr | University of California, Santa Cruz, United States | Science | 137 | 10.1126/science.adk1075 |
| 2 | The microbial carbon pump and climate change | Nianzhi Jiao, Tingwei Luo, Quanrui Chen, Zhao Zhao, Xilin Xiao, Jihua Liu, Zhimin Jian, Shucheng Xie, Helmuth Thomas, Gerhard J Herndl, Ronald Benner, Micheal Gonsior, Feng Chen, Wei-Jun Cai, Carol Robinson | Nianzhi Jiao | Xiamen University, China | Nature Reviews Microbiology | 136 | 10.1038/s41579-024-01018-0 |
| 3 | Biochar-enhanced bioremediation of eutrophic waters impacted by algal blooms | Yasser Vasseghian, Megha M Nadagouda, Tejraj M Aminabhavi | Yasser Vasseghian, Tejraj M. Aminabhavi | Yuan Ze University, Taiwan | Journal of Environmental Management | 103 | 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122044 |
| 4 | New Record Ocean Temperatures and Related Climate Indicators in 2023 | Lijing Cheng, John Abraham, Kevin E. Trenberth, Tim Boyer, Michael Mann, Jiang Zhu, Fan Wang, Fujiang Yu, Ricardo Locarnini, John Fasullo, Fei Zheng, Yuanlong Li, Bin Zhang, Liying Wan, Xingrong Chen, Dakui Wang, Licheng Feng, Xiangzhou Song, Yulong Liu, Franco Reseghetti, Simona Simoncelli, Viktor Gouretski, Gengxin Chen, Alexey Mishonov, Jim Reagan, Karina von Schuckmann, Yuying Pan, Zhetao Tan, Yujing Zhu, Wangxu Wei, Guancheng Li, Qiuping Ren, Lijuan Cao, Yayang Lu | Lijing Cheng | Chinese Academy of Sciences, China | Advances in Atmospheric Sciences | 97 | 10.1007/s00376-024-3378-5 |
| 5 | <scp>Bio‐ORACLE</scp> v3.0. Pushing marine data layers to the <scp>CMIP6</scp> Earth System Models of climate change research | Jorge Assis, Salvador Jesús Fernández Bejarano, Vinícius Salazar, Lennert Schepers, Lidiane Gouvêa, Eliza Fragkopoulou, Frederic Leclercq, B. Vanhoorne, L. Tyberghein, Ester Á. Serrão, Heroen Verbruggen, Olivier De Clerck | Jorge Assis | Universidade do Algarve, Portugal | Global Ecology and Biogeography | 81 | 10.1111/geb.13813 |
| 6 | Global riverine land-to-ocean carbon export constrained by observations and multi-model assessment | Мaodian Liu, Peter A. Raymond, Ronny Lauerwald, Qianru Zhang, Gerrit Müller, Kay L. Davis, Nils Moosdorf, Changhao Xiao, Jack J. Middelburg, Lex Bouwman, Arthur Beusen, Changhui Peng, Fabrice Lacroix, Hanqin Tian, Junjie Wang, Mingxu Li, Qiuan Zhu, Sagy Cohen, Wim Joost van Hoek, Ya Li, Yangmingkai Li, Yuanzhi Yao, Pierre Regnier | Мaodian Liu | Peking University, China | Nature Geoscience | 61 | 10.1038/s41561-024-01524-z |
| 7 | Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor | Andrew K Sweetman, Alycia J Smith, Danielle S W de Jonge, Tobias Hahn, Peter Schroedl, Michael Silverstein, Claire Andrade, R Lawrence Edwards, Alastair J M Lough, Clare Woulds, William B Homoky, Andrea Koschinsky, Sebastian Fuchs, Thomas Kuhn, Franz Geiger, Jeffrey J Marlow | Andrew K. Sweetman | The Scottish Association for Marine Science, United Kingdom | Nature Geoscience | 59 | 10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8 |
| 8 | A Synthesis of Global Coastal Ocean Greenhouse Gas Fluxes | Laure Resplandy, Allison Hogikyan, Jens Daniel Müller, Raymond G. Najjar, Hermann W. Bange, Daniele Bianchi, Thomas Weber, Wei‐Jun Cai, Scott C. Doney, Katja Fennel, Marion Gehlen, Judith Hauck, Fabrice Lacroix, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Alizée Roobaert, Jörg Schwinger, Sarah Berthet, Laurent Bopp, Thi Tuyet Trang Chau, Minhan Dai, Nicolas Gruber, Tatiana Ilyina, Annette Kock, Manfredi Manizza, Zouhair Lachkar, Goulven G. Laruelle, Enhui Liao, Ivan D. Lima, Cara Nissen, Christian Rödenbeck, Roland Séférian, Katsuya Toyama, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Pierre Regnier | Laure Resplandy | Princeton University, United States | Global Biogeochemical Cycles | 46 | 10.1029/2023gb007803 |
| 9 | Nitrifying niche in estuaries is expanded by the plastisphere | Xiaoxuan Su, Xinrong Huang, Yiyue Zhang, Leyang Yang, Teng Wen, Xiaoru Yang, Guibing Zhu, Jinbo Zhang, Yijia Tang, Zhaolei Li, Jing Ding, Ruilong Li, Junliang Pan, Xinping Chen, Fuyi Huang, Matthias C Rillig, Yong-Guan Zhu | Yong‐Guan Zhu | Institute of Urban Environment, China | Nature Communications | 44 | 10.1038/s41467-024-50200-8 |
| 10 | Enhanced CO2 uptake of the coastal ocean is dominated by biological carbon fixation | Moritz Mathis, Fabrice Lacroix, Stefan Hagemann, David Nielsen, Tatiana Ilyina, Corinna Schrum | Moritz Mathis | Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Germany | Nature Climate Change | 42 | 10.1038/s41558-024-01956-w |
| 11 | Microbiology of wetlands and the carbon cycle in coastal wetland mediated by microorganisms | Ghulam Mustafa, Sarfraz Hussain, Yuhong Liu, Imran Ali, Jiayuan Liu, Hamida Bano | Yuhong Liu | Hohai University, China | The Science of The Total Environment | 40 | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175734 |
| 12 | The application of magical microalgae in carbon sequestration and emission reduction: Removal mechanisms and potential analysis | He Dahai, Yin Zhihong, Qin Lin, Yuhong Li, Lei Tian, Jiang Li, Zhu Liandong | Yin Zhihong | Guizhou University, China | Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews | 39 | 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114417 |
| 13 | Particle-attached bacteria act as gatekeepers in the decomposition of complex phytoplankton polysaccharides | Feng-Qing Wang, Daniel Bartosik, Chandni Sidhu, Robin Siebers, De-Chen Lu, Anke Trautwein-Schult, Dörte Becher, Bruno Huettel, Johannes Rick, Inga V Kirstein, Karen H Wiltshire, Thomas Schweder, Bernhard M Fuchs, Mia M Bengtsson, Hanno Teeling, Rudolf I Amann | Daniel Bartosik, Chandni Sidhu | University of Greifswald, Germany | Microbiome | 38 | 10.1186/s40168-024-01757-5 |
| 14 | Phytoplankton composition from sPACE: Requirements, opportunities, and challenges | Ivona Cetinić, Cécile S. Rousseaux, Ian T. Carroll, Alison Chase, Sasha J. Kramer, P. Jeremy Werdell, David A. Siegel, Heidi M. Dierssen, Dylan Catlett, Aimee Neeley, Inia Soto, Jennifer L. Wolny, Natasha Sadoff, Erin Urquhart, Toby K. Westberry, Dariusz Stramski, Nima Pahlevan, Bridget N. Seegers, Emerson Sirk, Priscila Kienteca Lange, Ryan Vandermeulen, Jason R. Graff, James G. Allen, Peter Gaube, Lachlan I. W. McKinna, S. Morgaine McKibben, Caren Binding, Violeta Sanjuan Calzado, Michael J. Sayers | Cécile S. Rousseaux | Morgan State University, United States | Remote Sensing of Environment | 36 | 10.1016/j.rse.2023.113964 |
| 15 | Growth of sulfate-reducing Desulfobacterota and Bacillota at periodic oxygen stress of 50% air-O2 saturation | Stefan Dyksma, Michael Pester | Stefan Dyksma, Michael Pester | Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Germany | Microbiome | 36 | 10.1186/s40168-024-01909-7 |
| 16 | Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae | Clara J M Hoppe, Niels Fuchs, Dirk Notz, Philip Anderson, Philipp Assmy, Jørgen Berge, Gunnar Bratbak, Gaël Guillou, Alexandra Kraberg, Aud Larsen, Benoit Lebreton, Eva Leu, Magnus Lucassen, Oliver Müller, Laurent Oziel, Björn Rost, Bernhard Schartmüller, Anders Torstensson, Jonas Wloka | Clara J. M. Hoppe | Alfred-Wegener-Institut-Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Germany | Nature Communications | 36 | 10.1038/s41467-024-51636-8 |
| 17 | Astaxanthin Alleviates Hepatic Lipid Metabolic Dysregulation Induced by Microcystin-LR | Qinmei Tan, Hanyu Chu, Jia Wei, Sisi Yan, Xiaoya Sun, Jiangping Wang, Lemei Zhu, Fei Yang | Fei Yang | University of South China, China | Toxins | 36 | 10.3390/toxins16090401 |
| 18 | Global subterranean estuaries modify groundwater nutrient loading to the ocean | Stephanie J. Wilson, Amy Moody, Tristan McKenzie, M. Bayani Cardenas, Elco Luijendijk, Audrey H. Sawyer, Alicia M. Wilson, Holly A. Michael, Bochao Xu, Karen L. Knee, Hyung‐Mi Cho, Yishai Weinstein, Adina Paytan, Nils Moosdorf, Chen‐Tung Aurthur Chen, Mélanie Beck, Cody V. Lopez, Dorina Murgulet, Guebuem Kim, Mathew A. Charette, Hannelore Waska, J. Severino P. Ibánhez, Gwénaëlle Chaillou, Till Oehler, Shin‐ichi Onodera, Mitsuyo Saito, Valentí Rodellas, Natasha Dimova, Daniel Montiel, Henrietta Dulai, Christina Richardson, Jinzhou Du, Eric Petermann, Xiaogang Chen, Kay L. Davis, Sébastien Lamontagne, Ryo Sugimoto, Guizhi Wang, Hailong Li, Américo Iadran Torres, Cansu Demir, Emily Bristol, Craig T. Connolly, J. W. McClelland, Brenno Januario da Silva, Douglas R. Tait, BSK Kumar, R. Viswanadham, V. V. S. S. Sarma, Emmanoel Vieira Silva-Filho, Alan M. Shiller, Alanna L Lecher, Joseph Tamborski, Henry Bokuniewicz, Carlos Rocha, Anja Reckhardt, Michael E. Böttcher, Shan Jiang, Thomas Stieglitz, Houégnon Géraud Vinel Gbewezoun, Céline Charbonnier, Pierre Anschutz, Laura Hernández‐Terrones, S. Suresh Babu, Beata Szymczycha, Mahmood Sadat‐Noori, Felipe Niencheski, K. A. Null, Craig Tobias, Bongkeun Song, Iris C. Anderson, Isaac R. Santos | Stephanie J. Wilson | Smithsonian Environmental Research Center  Edgewater Maryland USA, United States | Limnology and Oceanography Letters | 34 | 10.1002/lol2.10390 |
| 19 | Molecular forecasting of domoic acid during a pervasive toxic diatom bloom | John K Brunson, Monica Thukral, John P Ryan, Clarissa R Anderson, Bethany C Kolody, Chase C James, Francisco P Chavez, Chui Pin Leaw, Ariel J Rabines, Pratap Venepally, Zoltan Fussy, Hong Zheng, Raphael M Kudela, G Jason Smith, Bradley S Moore, Andrew E Allen | John K. Brunson, Monica Thukral, Andrew E. Allen | University of California San Diego, United States | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 32 | 10.1073/pnas.2319177121 |
| 20 | Robust remote sensing retrieval of key eutrophication indicators in coastal waters based on explainable machine learning | Liudi Zhu, Tingwei Cui, A Runa, Xinliang Pan, Wenjing Zhao, Jinzhao Xiang, Mengmeng Cao | Tingwei Cui | Sun Yat-Sen University, China | ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing | 30 | 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2024.04.007 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 in marine and coastal ecosystems research is dominated by studies investigating biogeochemical fluxes, primary productivity, and coastal environmental stressors. Leading the cohort, Chlorophyll a remote sensing and monitoring stands out as the most prominent indicator, present in 14% of top-ranked publications. Primary production and eutrophication dynamics represent major twin pillars, each appearing in 10% of high-impact studies, alongside dissolved organic matter (DOM) characterization (10%). Researchers are placing significant emphasis on coastal water quality degradation and microbial community shifts, highlighted by oxygen tolerance mechanisms (8%) and phytoplankton community dynamics (8%). Additionally, core marine processes such as the biological carbon pump, carbon sequestration, dissolved oxygen depleted zones, sea ice dynamics, and harmful algal blooms (including microcystin toxin analysis) each account for 6% of top paper mentions. Multi-spectral remote sensing techniques and land-ocean continuum modeling are increasingly leveraged to track land-based nutrient runoff and estuarine transport. Together, these dominant themes reflect a strong scientific consensus around quantifying coastal carbon transformation, monitoring anthropogenic eutrophication, and predicting marine ecological responses to changing environmental gradients.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026 highlights a strategic transition toward process-oriented coastal biogeochemistry and localized ecosystem health monitoring. The most pronounced expansion occurred in primary production research, which surged from zero representation in 2023 to 10% of top-ranked literature in 2024. Similarly, studies targeting phytoplankton community structure and oxygen tolerance saw dramatic gains, rising to 8% of publications each. Emerging growth topics also included multispectral remote sensing, land-ocean continuum interactions, phytoplankton biomass quantification, and cyanobacterial microcystin toxicity, all entering top ranks at 6% frequency. Sea ice biogeochemistry also quadrupled in representation from 2% to 6%. Conversely, broad physical oceanography indicators experienced relative declines: sea surface temperature (SST) tracking dropped from 10% in 2023 to 4% in 2024, and general satellite remote sensing decreased from 10% to 6%. Studies centered on Southern Ocean regional dynamics and iron limitation also showed modest declines from 6% to 4%. This reallocation underscores a field-wide movement from macro-scale thermal monitoring toward high-resolution ecological modeling of coastal nutrient loading, hypoxia resilience, and organic carbon processing.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Marine and coastal ecosystems Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/marine-and-coastal-ecosystems/2026. Accessed 2026-07-29.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```