Research on Forest Carbon Sink Potential in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled "Research on Forest Carbon Sink Potential in China", submitted by Meng et al. to the journal of sustainability, selects 14 original variables in China Statistical Yearbook and further extracts 4 common factors based on factor analyzing method. Categorization and a comprehensive score is also constructed in this research. Several interesting findings, conclusions, and suggestions are given by the authors. I think the logistic of the manuscript is sound. However, several obvious deficiencies exist in this manuscript which need to be addressed carefully. This manuscript can't be considered for publication until all the following issues been solved satisfiedly.
1. The language. Extensive editing of English language and style required. I think the author just translate the word from Chinese to English. There is an obvious Chenglish style of the authors writing. For example, 'my country' is an inappropriate word in scientific writting. You can just say 'mainland China' instead. There are so many typos like this. Please do a thorough English polishing during the revision procedure.
2. About the Abstract. Although this manuscript has a logical methodology and a lot of interesting findings as well as suggestions. The abstract doesn't reflect these interesting things. I almost give up reading after seeing the abstract at the first glance. For example, you didn't give an explanation about the 4 common factors. It just appears and the readers don't know what it is. I think it will confuse most readers a lot. And you should also include some interesting findings to the abstract.
3. Front disagreement exist in the manuscript. Such as line 106. Please check this problem throughout the manuscript.
4. Line 168. You should give the full name of KMO before using it.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
1. The same approaches can be implemented to another country
2. Suggest to change the style as first person
3. Suggest to add the land cover map of China, and add with 5 grouping of the comprehensive score
4. The authors have not mentioned regarding bamboo plantation which is widely found in China; was bamboo plantation also included in the calculation?
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear authors
Thank you very much for an interesting article, the authors have done a lot of work, but I have comments.
- The tables contain data from models, I don't understand why the numbers are given to 6 decimal places in table 4. That's not relevant.
- unify the decimal places in the tables.
- in the conclusion you write that complex influences depend on four factors. I don't think so, there is more influence on the given localities. The main factor is climate change and water However, this evaluation is very beneficial.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Thanks for your reply. I have checked the revised manuscript. I think this paper may be published after some further (minor) revision, especially on the language. Please carefully check this issue. Once it is published, it's hard to revise.
Best wishes.
Author Response
Thank you for your excellent suggestions to improve the readability of our manuscript. This article has undergone minor revisions and the language has been further modified by a native English speaker to improve grammar and readability.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have improved the manuscript a lot. Only need minor revisions such as space between words, and please provide information as complete as possible in the titles of tables and figures because tables and figures must be able to stand alone even though they are separated from the text.
Thank you very much.
Author Response
I am grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
I am thanful and appreciate the author for conisdering the suggestion and incorporations in the manuscript. Overall, I think, now it is very good shape and worth to be published in any reputed journal including "Sustainability'. However i will again insist on addition of LULC map of the study area instead of just score map. Last but not least, still I am not convinced with data description (Line 82-87), I personally visit the cited reference of ststitical year book of China, but was unable find the exact data, so I will suggest to add at least the pages, hyperlink or description of sub-section of this reference may help the reader.
Author Response
I am grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
