Quantifying the Effects of Root and Soil Properties on Soil Detachment Capacity in Agricultural Land Use of Southern China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The structure of the paper is good. But with some short comings. The introduction needs to be more informative and relevant to the rest of the paper. There is some information lacking about soil stabilization by vegetation, so the authors might be added them.
General Comments:
- I think in the Introduction, the authors should appreciate some advanced papers about the impacts of roots on soil stabilization in different types of vegetation (I am not one of the authors of the following papers):
** Soil erosion and shrubs: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-018-0021-2
** Soil erosion and trees: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2022.106410
2. Suggestion of this study, to me, is not advisable. Planting grass in forests is not usual in the USA, Romania, Germany, Middle-East countries, Netherlands, Swiss, and Japan (I have experience in these countries, and I am very curious to see some examples of this suggestion (with citations) in your paper).
Specific Comments:
L 55: and also root mechanical characteristics are related to vegetation growth (see this paper: https://doi.org/10.3390/f11030345). As root mechanical characteristics are a proxy of soil stabilization, so it would be nice to add this statement.
L 109: First, latitude and then longitude must be presented.
L 113: The value of reference Evapotranspiration could be added.
L 127: Scientific name should be italic (also, check it for the rest of the paper).
L 162-164: Add citations for each method.
Author Response
Response to reviewers comments on “Quantifying the effects of root and soil properties on soil detachment capacity during agroforestry development in southern China”
forests-1942448
Dear Editors,
On behalf of my co-authors, I appreciate you for providing us an opportunity to revise our manuscript. These comments helped improving our manuscript significantly. We responded to all the comments and made all the requested changes. In the following section, we explained in detail how we responded to each of the comments and gave responses (blue color) just below it.
Reviewers' comments:
Reviewer:
The structure of the paper is good. But with some short comings. The introduction needs to be more informative and relevant to the rest of the paper. There is some information lacking about soil stabilization by vegetation, so the authors might be added them. I think in the Introduction, the authors should appreciate some advanced papers about the impacts of roots on soil stabilization in different types of vegetation
Response #1: Following your suggestion, we have appreciated some articles about about soil stabilization by vegetation the impacts of roots on soil stabilization in different types of vegetation, and have made a supplement in the introduction. (For details, see page 2 of the revised version, lines 55-57 and 70-74).
Comment #2. Suggestion of this study, to me, is not advisable. Planting grass in forests is not usual in the USA, Romania, Germany, Middle-East countries, Netherlands, Swiss, and Japan (I have experience in these countries, and I am very curious to see some examples of this suggestion (with citations) in your paper).
Response #2: We agree with your suggestions. It is indeed rare to plant grass in the forest, and here we would like to express that grass planting in the development of orchards. In this study, the orchard development process severely damaged the soil stability due to large-scale mechanical excavation, while the mulching of herbaceous plants effectively improved the soil stability of the developed orchard. In addition, previous studies also pointed out that grass planting in orchards can enhance soil fertility. Therefore, grass planting in orchards is worth considering as an orchard ground cover measure. The citation on planting grass in orchards has been added (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150632; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106897; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124290). We have corrected the errors in the conclusion and abstract sections of this paper. (For details, see page 1, line 25 and page 19, 571 of the revised version).
Comment #3. L 55: and also root mechanical characteristics are related to vegetation growth (see this paper: https://doi.org/10.3390/f11030345). As root mechanical characteristics are a proxy of soil stabilization, so it would be nice to add this statement.
Response #3: We agree with your suggestions and have added to them according to your suggestions. (For details, see page 2, lines 57-64 of the revised version).
Comment #4. L 109: First, latitude and then longitude must be presented.
Response #4: We have corrected the errors and have shown the latitude first and then the longitude according to your suggestion. (For details, see page 4, lines 128 of the revised version).
Comment #5. L 113: The value of reference Evapotranspiration could be added.
Response #5: We have added the reference evapotranspiration value according to your suggestion:
Line 119-120: The average annual precipitation and evaporation are 1469 mm and 1000-1200 mm, respectively. (For details, see page 4, lines 132-133 of the revised version).
Comment #6.L 127: Scientific name should be italic (also, check it for the rest of the paper).
Response #6: The latin name for plant had been changed to italics according to your suggestion, but because line 127 points to land use types and is not a scientific name, it has not been changed to italics. (For details, see page 4, lines 148-151 of the revised version).
Comment #7.L 162-164: Add citations for each method.
Response #7: Citations have been added for each method based on your suggestions. (For details, see page 5, lines 185-188 of the revised version).
Reviewer #2: The article is devoted to an important research topic - soil loss due to different types of land use. Land use change with the development of agroforestry has reduced the growth and development of the root system, which has affected the soil properties of the surface fertile layer.There are a few things to note:
Comment #1. line 99. The objectives of the study are written, you need to indicate the overall goal based on the title of the article.
Response 1: Depending on your excellent suggestion, we have made a supplement following:
Lines 112-115: thus, a quantitative study of the effects of root and soil properties on soil detachment capacity during agroforestry development can predict soil separation capacity more accurately and can be more targeted in soil erosion management. (For details, see page 3, lines 112-115 of the revised version).
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer
MDPI - Forests
Manuscript Number: forests-1942448
Title: «Quantifying the effects of root and soil properties on soil detachment capacity during agroforestry development in southern China».
The article is devoted to an important research topic - soil loss due to different types of land use. Land use change with the development of agroforestry has reduced the growth and development of the root system, which has affected the soil properties of the surface fertile layer.There are a few things to note:
line 99. The objectives of the study are written, you need to indicate the overall goal based on the title of the article.
In the “Materials and Methods” section, in the “objects” section, you should indicate which soils under which types of land use were studied. It is better to present these soils as a list and designate them in Fig.1
Author Response
Response to reviewers comments on “Quantifying the effects of root and soil properties on soil detachment capacity during agroforestry development in southern China”
forests-1942448
Dear Editors,
On behalf of my co-authors, I appreciate you for providing us an opportunity to revise our manuscript. These comments helped improving our manuscript significantly. We responded to all the comments and made all the requested changes. In the following section, we explained in detail how we responded to each of the comments and gave responses (blue color) just below it.
Reviewers' comments:
Reviewer :
The article is devoted to an important research topic - soil loss due to different types of land use. Land use change with the development of agroforestry has reduced the growth and development of the root system, which has affected the soil properties of the surface fertile layer.There are a few things to note:
Comment #1. line 99. The objectives of the study are written, you need to indicate the overall goal based on the title of the article.
Response 1: Depending on your excellent suggestion, we have made a supplement following:
Lines 112-115: thus, a quantitative study of the effects of root and soil properties on soil detachment capacity during agroforestry development can predict soil separation capacity more accurately and can be more targeted in soil erosion management. (For details, see page 3, lines 112-115 of the revised version).
Comment #2. In the “Materials and Methods” section, in the “objects” section, you should indicate which soils under which types of land use were studied. It is better to present these soils as a list and designate them in Fig.1
Response #2： Thank you very much for your suggestions! We have added pictures of each plots to Figure 1 according to you suggestion, because the selected sample plots are all red clay soil produced by the weathering of Quaternary sediments, so there is no additional list. (See Figure 1 on page 4 of the revised version for details).
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I have read the authors' responses to the comments in the review. They corrected what I thought was debatable/incorrect. The article is fine now.
Author Response
Dear teacherPlease see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
