Effects of Groundwater Mineralization and Groundwater Depth on Eco-Physiological Characteristics of Robinia pseudoacacia L. in the Yellow River Delta, China
, Wei Liu 1, Chunxia Tan 1, Bo Jia 1 and Zhenyu Cao 2
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The work of Mao et al. presents an interesting topic of research with high relevance for understanding the eco-physiological behavior of Robinia pseudoacacia under drought and salt stress conditions. Generally, the manuscript aims to investigate the effect of different groundwater mineralization and groundwater depth on soil characteristics, and morphological and physiological variables of Robinia pseudoacacia. Both groundwater mineralization and groundwater depth affect most of the considered variables.
General comments
The manuscript is well written and logically organized. Language is quite fluent, but some grammatical or typographical errors occur. Thus, it would be necessary to check the language throughout. However, I have some concerns pushing me against publishing this manuscript in its present form. Hereafter, I tried my best to highlight which points could be improved.
1) In the Introduction, more information about groundwater mineralization and groundwater depth effects should be provided.
2) The Material and Methods section should be more detailed with information about the duration of the experiment, selection of treatments, measurements of all variables, and statistical analysis.
3) The Results section should be revised with reformulation of some figures (Figure 1 and 2) that are difficult to analyze with 3 variables (GWM, DWD, and soil depth). The text also should be re-written with indication of the results of a multiple comparison test of means in order to provide more clarity. Sometimes, the text does not match the information of tables or figures and should be revised.
4) The Discussion section must be strongly improved according to the revised results. The separation between “biomass characteristics” and “biomass allocation” does not make sense since they related.
Other comments are in the attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
All comments and suggested changes in the attached word file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Mao et al. provided a revised version of their manuscript on responses of Robinia pseudoacacia to groundwater mineralization and groundwater depth. Most of my comments and concerns to the original version were addressed. However, some pointsneed clarification and modifications. Please see the attached file.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
