Rewetting Tropical Peatlands Reduced Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Riau Province, Indonesia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The use of chamber method to measure and analyse methane and nitrous oxide fluxes from the sites in question is unequivocal. The influence of tree vegetation on these gases is generally negligible. However, for carbon dioxide balance analysis, data obtained from measurements from the soil surface are insufficient. The contribution of tree vegetation remains an open question. This aspect needs to be addressed and analysed, and probably reflected in the title of the article. Otherwise it misleads the reader. One can only talk about carbon dioxide balance by taking into account tree vegetation. For example, as a result of measurements by the Eddy Covariance method.

It would be interesting to plot the fluxes of methane and nitrous oxide in the same manner as carbon dioxide (Figure 4).

It is useful to analyse the relationship of the fluxes of the greenhouse gases in question to environmental parameters and, above all, to ground water levels.

Figure 2 shows the post-impact view of the sites in question. It would be of interest to the reader to see how these areas looked at baseline and at different stages of impact. 

It would be useful to compare the findings with emission factors given in Wetlands Supplement (2014).

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments.
It has indeed helped us to improve the manuscript with more clarity for the readers.

Best regards,

Daniel Murdiyarso

(on behalf of the co-authors) 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This study investigated the GHG emissions before and after rewetting in tropical peat forests among vegetation types. The author suggested that rewetting is an efficient way for reducing GHG emission, as well as restoring the peatland. The introduction and result are clear, but some details of obtaining and calculating the data are missing. The specific comments are as follows:

line 101-109: when and what’s the frequency for measuring the soil respiration?

line 104 please give the type and manufacture of the IRGA.

line 122-124 please give the type and manufacture of the ECD and FID.

line 199 as the Fig 4 presented, why the water table decreased from August 2019? did the weir still work then?

line 204 in this table, the CO2 fluxes are presented as yearly data. IRGA can only give the transient CO2 flux. How to convert the transient data into yearly data?

line 216 all of the “r2” and “p” should be italic

line 241 in the table 3, I think the CO2 emission should use the total respiration, rather than the heterotrophic respiration

line 241 in the table 3, how to convert the hourly data of CH4 and N2O into yearly?

line 309 the conclusion should answer the two questions which proposed in the introduction

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,
Many thanks for your detailed comments and suggestions. We have addressed your enquiries and comments one--by-one.  This has indeed improved the readability and quality of our manuscript.
Best regards,

Daniel Murdiyarso
(on behalf of the co-authors)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx