Coupling Effects of Terracing and Vegetation on Soil Ecosystem Multifunctionality in the Loess Plateau, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an interesting study dealing with natural vegetation as a function of land preparation. But there are some serious question that need to be answered:

1. The area occurs at altitudes between 1900-2200m. Please provide climate data and justify the only sampling date of August 2015, while the experiment was running from May 2014-October 2015. How do freezing and thawing effect results?  Did measurements in august 2015 ( line 145)  reflect cumulative effects of a period of 15 months? Nothing measured or observed in between? Was nothing damaged?

2. 15 soil functions were measured. Line 202 only mentions 10, while hydraulic functions are discussed in section2.3.3. Mention all 15 right away.

3. How about the spatial area that the plots occupy? This would seem to be crucial as figure 1 shows that a substantial area would  be needed to be representative. This crucial information  appears to be lacking. Clearly, relatively small plots cannot be representative for the areal processes that are being discussed. And how about slope effects ( line 150). These should be major but are not coming back in the conclusions. 

4. I have problems with the ecosystem functionality index. xij= function value in plot j. Ok. maxi = top 5% of all values of the particular i function considered?  But what we need to know is when this particular function exceeds a critical value ( "threshold") considering the particular location  and that's different from this 5% value, it would seem. Nothing about thresholds! This needs to be clarified. 

5. Soil information is inadequate ( line 118). mention soil type at least in this paper with an intended international scope. 

6. small final point: report data in whole digits: 30% rather than 29.4% for example. Be realistic about the error involved in all of this.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Editor;

This manuscript deals with coupling effects of land preparation and vegetation on soil ecosystem multifunctionality in a small watershed of the Loess Plateau. Some of basic weaknesses are detected in this manuscript as below:

(1)        The title of the paper is too long.

(2)        I did not find the graphical abstract and highlights files.

(3)        The abstract part is too long. In the abstract part, present the results with numerical values.

(4)        Present the final conclusion and practical suggestions in the end of abstract part.

(5)            The introduction is very general and does not focus on the objectives of the research.

(6)            Research innovation is not explicitly stated, and the whole text should focus on the international perspective (not the local and regional importance).

(7)            Research hypotheses must be presented in the end of introduction part.

(8)            The sampling method is vague.

(9)            Some sections are too long and needs to summarize.

(10)      Especially, please summarize the sub-titles in different parts.

(11)      The discussion is mainly descriptive, with little explanation on the new references behind the observed results.

(12)      In the conclusion part, you must accept or reject the research hypothesis.

(13)      In the end of abstract and conclusion parts you must highlight the practical suggestions of your study.

(14)      English language level needs to be strengthened.

 

Sincerely

Reviewer

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

My questions have been answered. Personally I prefer to  mention threshold values when assessing ecosystem services but I agree that the method you use is also used by others and allows a comparison.  I have not  seen a reference to the UN Sustainable Develkopment Goals, as suggested in my review,  and I would strongly recommend that you do so. It can be brief and relate to SDG 6 ( water), SDG 13 ( climate) and SDG 15 ( Land). Remember Sustainability is an  international journal!    

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Editor,

The revised version of paper is OK.

Good luck

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your approval of our revised draft.