Abstract: In order to study research situation of nutrients in the estuary in our country, based on the data of our country nutrients research in the estuary from 1981 to 2017 in CNKI and WOS database, and with the help of document analysis functions of the CiteSpace software, this article sorts out the development trend and hot spots of the research related to nutrients in the estuary in our country over nearly 40 years. The results indicate that the number of published papers in Chinese and English increased rapidly between 1981 and 2017, and the number of theses in English significantly exceeded that in Chinese after 2013, which embodied the high popularity and internationalization of the nutrients research in the estuary in our country. With the change of time, the region, content and depth of the nutrients research in the estuary in our country continually increase. Before 2000, we mainly paid close attention to the nutrients content and distribution characteristics. After 2000, the research contents were amplified into types of nutrients and contents, temporal and spatial variation and influence factors, environmental effects and solicitation mechanisms, regulation and governance and so forth. In the new period, the study on the form and transformation mechanism, biogeochemical cycling process and mechanism, ecological and environmental effect and regulation aspect of all kinds of nutrients should be strengthened in the nutrients research in the estuary in our country. At the same time, we should promote the research on real time supervise and control technique of nutrients, and carry out the integration research on the sea of drainage basin - river mouth - offshore nutrients under the watershed science and theory of the critical zone of the earth.