Spatio-Temporal Variation of the Ecosystem Service Value in Qilian Mountain National Park (Gansu Area) Based on Land Use
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper studied the spatio-temporal variation of the ecosystem service value in national park of China based on land use, by taking a case of Qilian Mountain National Park (Gansu Area), which is a good research topic for the ecosystem value. The study is interesting, it still has the following shortcomings:
Firstly, the summary section is condensed to add the main ideas of the policy recommendations.
Secondly, the circles in "Figure 5 Local moran'I scatter plot based on data of 2014" should clarify the meaning and connotation of their representation.
Thirdly, the "4 Discussion" should add the content of analysis, such as the impact of the change of "First, the land use of Qilian Mountain National Park (Gansu Area) was mainly grassland from 2000 to 2019" on the development of national parks.
Fourthly, to Figure 4. The content involved is explained further.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your kind comments, please kindly find the attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper produces some interesting analyses that may be important for local development and decision-making. However, because of the presentation of the paper, it is quite difficult to understand what the authors are proposing with the analysis and why is it important. In addition, the discussion is limited to presenting the results that were already introduced in the discussion section. Below, I present some suggestions that may help improve the paper's overall quality.
- Abstract: i) What are the aims of the paper? ii) Include more details about the methods used. iii) What are the main conclusions of the paper? iv) It is not explained before what the “10.4723” value means.
- Introduction: I could not understand what the authors are proposing in this section, nor what knowledge gaps they are covering with this analysis. Here, it must be clear: i) What would an ecosystem service value represent? ii) What are the knowledge gaps covered in this research? iii) What are the research questions and aims of the paper?
- Materials and Methods: i) Consider including a step-by-step flowchart in this section. ii) In the study area subsection, it would be important to see a description of the landscape. For instance, what is the predominant vegetation type? iii) More information about the dataset used must be included. iv) A description of what each index means would be important. v) Reference all formulas. vi) How were the data validated to be used in indexes produced in other studies?
- Results: i) During this section, the authors mention “trends” several times – what models were applied to verify these trends? Please include it in the methods section. ii) In Figure 3, what does the legend means?
- Discussion: In this section, only a summary of the results was made. Scientific discussion must be made here. What is the importance of Figure 4 here?
- Conclusion: The conclusions presented seem to be just a repetition of the results.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your kind comments, please kindly find the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Reviewer 3 Report
Sentences are in many cases too long, sometimes with superfluous or missing words. They are generally understandable, but require too much concentration to follow. Mistakes in terminology (e.g. Coefficient of Sensitive, instead of Sensitivity), cannot be tolerated, especially if they are in the Abstract.
It would be better to move the Study Area paragraph out of the Methods and make it a separate unit, with more landscape and population characteristics.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your kind comments, please kindly find the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The overall quality of the presentation of the paper has improved. However, some points that I mentioned in the first review are not clear. The research questions and the aims of the paper are not clear -this has to be fixed. In addition, it is not clear yet which models were used to verify the ‘trends’ mentioned in the result section – this must be clear in the material and methods section. I suggest moving the process flowchart to the material and methods section – please revise the arrows in this image, as I do not understand why they are pointing both ways. The location of Figure 5 is not clear – why is it in the discussion section? Was it produced for this paper? If yes, it should be in the results section (explaining how it was produced in the material and methods section), otherwise it must be referenced.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thanks again for your kind comments. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the comments are as flowing:
The overall quality of the presentation of the paper has improved. However, some points that I mentioned in the first review are not clear. The research questions and the aims of the paper are not clear -this has to be fixed. In addition, it is not clear yet which models were used to verify the ‘trends’ mentioned in the result section – this must be clear in the material and methods section. I suggest moving the process flowchart to the material and methods section – please revise the arrows in this image, as I do not understand why they are pointing both ways. The location of Figure 5 is not clear – why is it in the discussion section? Was it produced for this paper? If yes, it should be in the results section (explaining how it was produced in the material and methods section), otherwise it must be referenced.
[Response]: Thank you very much for your kind comment. we modified it as flowing:
(1) We once again clarify the research objectives and questions of this paper. It is “This paper mainly relies on the importance and resource characteristics of ecological economic development, taking Qilian Mountain National Park (Gansu area) as an example. First, the ecosystem service value equivalent factor was used to analyze the changes in ecosystem service value from 2000 to 2019 and enrich the application research of ecosystem service value equivalent factor. Second, combined with the economic development of the Qilian Mountains and its surrounding areas, highlight the characteristics shared by the people of national park construction, build a national park industrialization development path of direct product supply, indirect product supply and basic guarantee, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for national park construction. And we also hoped to provide a typical case for the development of terrestrial ecosystems around the world”
(2) We used “CS” models were used to verify the ‘trends’ mentioned in the result section. It is “This paper used the Coefficient of Sensitive (CS) index commonly used in economics to reveal the dependence of the value index on the change of ecosystem service value over time, so as to reduce the uncertainty of the results. According to CS, to better verify the stability of the change trend and characteristics of the total value of ecosystem services in Qilian Mountain National Park (Gansu area) from 2000 to 2019.”
(3) We moved the process flowchart to the material and methods section and revised the arrows in Figure 2.
(4)We further determined the location of Figure 5,and we added ” Combined with the actual situation and industrial characteristics of China's national park construction, fully tap the cultural supply capacity of ecosystem services, provide direct product supply such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, explore diversified indirect product supply such as accommodation and catering, leisure vacation, culture and art, fitness and leisure activities, and more direct, systematic and intelligent protection and supervision systems, so as to realize the effective docking of product supply and sustainable utilization.” and these elements have been deleted in the conclusion.
