  The history of eddy covariance (EC) measuring system could be dated back to
100 years ago, but it was not until the recent decades that EC gains popularity
and being widely used in global change ecological studies, with explosion of
related work published in papers from various journals. Investigating 8297
literature related with EC from 1981 to 2018, we make a comprehensive and
critical review of scientific development of EC from a scientometric
perspective. First, the paper outlines general bibliometric statistics,
including publication number, country contribution, productive institutions,
active authors, journal distribution, highly cited articles and fund support,
to provide an informative picture of EC studies. Second, research trends are
revealed by network visualization and modeling based on keyword analysis, from
where we could discover the knowledge structure of EC and detect the research
focus and hotspots transitions at different periods. Third, collaboration in EC
research community has been explored. FLUXNET is the largest global network
uniting EC researchers, here we have quantified and evaluated its performance
by using bibliometric indicators of cooperation and citation. Specific
discussions have been given to the historical development of EC, including
technical maturation and application promotion. Considering the current barrier
for collaboration, the review closes by analyzing the reasons hindering data
sharing and makes a prospect of new models for data-intensive collaboration in
the future.
