Does the Slope Aspect Influence the Soil Organic Matter Concentration in Forest Soils?
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is written in a good manner and provides new insight in organic carbon management. Therese are few things that can be improved in the manuscript.
1. Kindly use either English_ US or English_UK and do not mix them in the manuscript.
2. Minor spell check is suggested
3. The data visualization requires minor improvement, make them more appealing
4. Kindly discuss the novelty of the research and how the research will help the better understanding of forest soil ecology
5. If possible, kindly discuss the future scope of the research
Author Response
Response to the Reviewer 1
Does the slope aspect influence the soil organic mater concen-tration in forest soils?
forests-1906215
Thank you for your comments and suggestions which have helped us to significantly improve the paper. We have prepared a reviewed version of the article, taking into account your suggestions. In our perspective, the new version of the paper is more fully developed. We sincerely hope that you will also share this view. Please find below the detailed responses to the points addressed by you. We marked with red color all the changes made in text according to each of your comments.
- The article is written in a good manner and provides new insight in organic carbon management. There are few things that can be improved in the manuscript.
Thank you very much!
- Kindly use either English_ US or English_UK and do not mix them in the manuscript.
- Minor spell check is suggested.
The article was send to an English teacher and was revised.
- The data visualization requires minor improvement, make them more appealing
All the charts from the article was revised, including the map from fig. 1 and now the visualization is improved.
- 4. Kindly discuss the novelty of the research and how the research will help the better understanding of forest soil ecology.
At the end of the introduction chapter was inserted a discussion about these issues: „The novelty of the present research is represented by a very large data input at nation-al level for the most spread forest soils (dystric cambisol and eutric cambisol). Consid-ering these, the results of this study bring important advance knowledge for a better understanding of the factors which can influence the soil organic matter content.”
- 5. If possible, kindly discuss the future scope of the research.
At the end of the discussions chapter was inserted a discussion about these issues: „For the future research and for a better overview of the relation between soil or-ganic matter and the forest site and stand characteristics is necessary to take into ac-count a bigger number of factors such as slope, stand composition, crown density.”
Thank you again for your comments, which have helped us to substantially improve the paper, as well as for all the time you have devoted to this article.
The authors!
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
I reviewed the article titled: " Does the slope aspect influence the soil organic mater concentration in forest soils?" and I found it very interesting and sufficiently well-prepared. Authors have demonstrated extensive comprehension of soil key-issues in the field of forestry. The article is a well needed source of condensed soil forest-related knowledge. Information collected by this research group can be used in far-reaching forestry and soil sciences, which I find scientifically significant. Based on my experience and according to the actual state of knowledge I accept this article after minor revision. Please check and verify the following points:
[34] Abbreviations need to be explained while first used. Please do change "SOC" into soil organic carbon (SOC) to make it perfectly understandable to the readers.
[51-54] "Differences in insolation periods at various elevations may occur according to the site’s slope aspect, resulting in a range of microclimates in multifaceted landscapes. Consequently, microclimate is often linked to soil moisture and composition at different slope" Please do add reference to this part. Statements in the research paper to be considered valid should be supported by research results or proper citation.
[190-191] [192-193] Table 3 and Table 4. I don't see any indicators of which correlation coefficient values are statistical significant. This is very unclear for me. Please do indicate that with proper explanation. I also don't understand why some values are marked red without any sufficient information about that. This needs to be corrected.
All of mentioned flaws are considered minor. Thus, I am positive that if authors apply indicated corrections this paper is worth publishing.
Author Response
Response to the Reviewer 2
Does the slope aspect influence the soil organic matter concentration in forest soils?
forests-1906215
Thank you for your comments and suggestions which have helped us to significantly improve the paper. We have prepared a reviewed version of the article, taking into account your suggestions. In our perspective, the new version of the paper is more fully developed. We sincerely hope that you will also share this view. Please find below the detailed responses to the points addressed by you. We marked with blue color all the changes made in text according to each of your comments.
- I reviewed the article titled: "Does the slope aspect influence the soil organic matter concentration in forest soils?" and I found it very interesting and sufficiently well-prepared. Authors have demonstrated extensive comprehension of soil key-issues in the field of forestry. The article is a well needed source of condensed soil forest-related knowledge. Information collected by this research group can be used in far-reaching forestry and soil sciences, which I find scientifically significant. Based on my experience and according to the actual state of knowledge I accept this article after minor revision. Please check and verify the following points:
Thank you very much!
- [34] Abbreviations need to be explained while first used. Please do change "SOC" into soil organic carbon (SOC) to make it perfectly understandable to the readers.
Solved.
- [51-54] "Differences in insolation periods at various elevations may occur according to the site’s slope aspect, resulting in a range of microclimates in multifaceted landscapes. Consequently, microclimate is often linked to soil moisture and composition at different slope". Please do add reference to this part. Statements in the research paper to be considered valid should be supported by research results or proper citation.
The missing of the reference was an omission. The reference was added and the phrase has been reformulated: „Depending on the elevation, in different moments is possible to appear insolation and this determine apparition of some microclimates [44]. Therefore, in these micro-climates the soil moisture can present differences compared with the rest of site slope aspect [44].” Thank you very much for your attention!
- [190-191] [192-193] Table 3 and Table 4. I don't see any indicators of which correlation coefficient values are statistical significant. This is very unclear for me. Please do indicate that with proper explanation. I also don't understand why some values are marked red without any sufficient information about that. This needs to be corrected.
Before table 3 and 4 was introduced supplementary information for a better understanding of this issue: „The correlations marked with red color are significant from statistic point of view at p <0.0500.”
- All of mentioned flaws are considered minor. Thus, I am positive that if authors apply indicated corrections this paper is worth publishing.
Thank you very much!
Thank you again for your comments, which have helped us to substantially improve the paper, as well as for all the time you have devoted to this article.
The authors!
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
