Ice Caves as Emerging Research Objects of the Climate‐Crisis Era

Ice caves remain relatively underexplored as climatic archives. Due to the rapid loss of ice mass that is observed worldwide as a result of global climate warming, we are losing this record year by year. This trend has likely prompted scientists from all over the world to expand and accelerate their research on perennial cave ice. In this study, using bibliometric analysis, we demonstrate how ice caves have become increasingly popular subjects of scientific research, especially within the past two decades. The article reveals that climate change has recently become a significant topic in speleological research. However, relatively few articles are directly focused on this issue, and the keyword is more commonly used as a connection between other areas of geoscience research. Many studies emphasize the urgent need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address the challenges facing this fragile ecosystem. Although the increasing number of published scientific studies resembles a race against time to explore as much as possible before this unique underground world disappears.