Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Leaf Litter Decomposition and Soil Organic Carbon Density in Arid and Barren Rocky Mountainous Regions: A Case Study of Yimeng Mountain
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments on Kong et al. Effects of nitrogen deposition on leaf litter decomposition and soil organic carbon density …
The manuscript is easy to read and the logic is easy to follow. The experimental set-up is sound and treatment and sampling procedure are sufficiently described. The results are in line with the proposed hypothesis, and discussed in.
Major comment
Change unit throughout from kg N/hm3 to a more conventional kg N/ha, it is hard to relate. Double check the dosage, to me they sounds to be on the high side.
I can’t find any description of any statistical analysis.
Figure 3 is missing!
Minor comments
Line 28 – pinus thunbergii skould be Pinus thurnbergii or use ‘black spruce’ as common name. Check the spelling throughout.
Line 44 – change ’because’ to ’since’
Author Response
Dear Editor and Reviewers:
On behalf of my co-authors, we are very grateful to receive your comments to improve my manuscript. These comments are very positive and constructive views for my manuscript entitled ‘Effects of nitrogen deposition on leaf litter decomposition and soil organic carbon density in arid and barren rocky mountainous regions: a case study of Yimeng Mountain’ (ID: forests-2420761). The following are the responses and revisions I have made in response to the questions and suggestions of the reviewers, item by item. Thanks again for the hard work of the editors and reviewers.
Response to the comments of Reviewer # 1
Comment 1: Change unit throughout from kg N/hm3 to a more conventional kg N/ha, it is hard to relate. Double check the dosage, to me they sounds to be on the high side.
Author’s Response: Thanks to the reviewer for the comment. We have changed all hm2 to ha. We have also checked all units to comply with the International System of Units. The dosage of nitrogen addition was determined based on the measured values of nitrogen deposition in China by Xu et al [1]. We referenced this literature in the manuscript. And the multiplication method is a common method to study the environmental impact of nitrogen deposition [2].
Comment 2: I can’t find any description of any statistical analysis.
Author’s Response: The statistical analysis of the manuscript is presented in 2.5. We have revised and added to this section to present a more complete statistical analysis process.
Comment 3: Figure 3 is missing!
Author’s Response: We apologize for the oversight in our work. We have re-added Fig. 3 and checked all the figures.
Comment 4: Line 28 – pinus thunbergii skould be Pinus thurnbergii or use ‘black spruce’ as common name. Check the spelling throughout.
Author’s Response: We have replaced all plant names with Latin names to avoid ambiguity. We have checked the spelling of all Latin names of plants and ensured that they are correct.
Comment 5: Line 44 – change ’because’ to ’since’
Author’s Response: We have made a change to this mistake. In addition, we have checked the entire manuscript to make the language more concise and correct.
- Xu, W.; Luo, X.S.; Pan, Y.P.; Zhang, L.; Tang, A.H.; Shen, J.L.; Zhang, Y.; Li, K.H.; Wu, Q.H. et al. Quantifying atmospheric nitrogen deposition through a nationwide monitoring network across China. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 2015, 15, 12345-12360. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12345-2015
- Peng, Y.; Li, Y.J.; Song, S.Y.; Chen, Y.Q.; Chen, G.T. and Tu, L.H. Nitrogen addition slows litter decomposition accompanied by accelerated manganese release: A five-year experiment in a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest. Soil Biology & Biochemistry. 2022, 165, 108511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2021.108511
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Introduction has enough information about Nitrogen addition increased the soil carbon density of pinus thunbergii but decreased the soil carbon density of sawtooth oak in the Yimeng Mountains. Methodology is well articulated. The author has written the results with novel information, contribute to the advancement of understanding and are pragmatic. Discussion of the manuscript is well written and sufficiently discuss the results.
In overall manuscript I will suggest that please include specific, detailed comments regarding the originality, scientific quality.Check the needs for tables and figures and the adequacy of the references. Check the spellings.
The present work is novel and well written.
Author Response
Dear Editor and Reviewers:
On behalf of my co-authors, we are very grateful to receive your comments to improve my manuscript. These comments are very positive and constructive views for my manuscript entitled ‘Effects of nitrogen deposition on leaf litter decomposition and soil organic carbon density in arid and barren rocky mountainous regions: a case study of Yimeng Mountain’ (ID: forests-2420761). The following are the responses and revisions I have made in response to the questions and suggestions of the reviewers, item by item. Thanks again for the hard work of the editors and reviewers.
Response to the comments of Reviewer # 2
Comment 1: Introduction has enough information about Nitrogen addition increased the soil carbon density of pinus thunbergii but decreased the soil carbon density of sawtooth oak in the Yimeng Mountains. Methodology is well articulated. The author has written the results with novel information, contribute to the advancement of understanding and are pragmatic. Discussion of the manuscript is well written and sufficiently discuss the results.
In overall manuscript I will suggest that please include specific, detailed comments regarding the originality, scientific quality. Check the needs for tables and figures and the adequacy of the references. Check the spellings.
The present work is novel and well written.
Author’s Response: Thanks to the reviewer for the comments. We checked the entire manuscript for logical structure, spelling, figures, tables, and references. Corrections were made for mistakes. In addition, we have revised the form of some paragraphs to make the expression more accurate and concise.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Kong forests-2420761
Title: Nitrogen addition increased the soil carbon density of pinus
thunbergii but decreased the soil carbon density of sawtooth oak in the
Yimeng Mountains
Authors: Baishu, Jilei Zhou, Liguo Qi, Shuying Jiao, Lujie Ma, Wenwen
Geng, Yuhao Zhao, Ting Gao, Jie Gong, Kun Li *, Chuanrong Li *
Submitted to section: Forest Ecology and Management,
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/sections/Ecology_ManagementНазвание:
The article is devoted to the use of different doses of nitrogen on the rate of decomposition of alpine oak and pine litter and on the response of litter nutrients. The effect was either very significant or negative. So, after a year of decomposition of the oak litter on the control without the introduction of nitrogen, 50% Corg remained in it, and 38-42% - with the introduction of 50-200 kg of nitrogen. And the addition of a large amount of N inhibited the release of C from pine needles.
It is difficult to understand who will apply nitrogen in highland forests. So need to write in the summary and conclusion that this is not necessary. Moreover, a similar effect has already been noted earlier. these findings are 350 consistent with previous studies that have shown a similar pattern of N addition effects 351 on leaf litter decomposition. Knorr et al. found that high N addition inhibited the decom-352 position of leaf litter with high lignin content but promoted the decomposition of leaf litter 353 with low lignin content [43].
Table 2. Decomposition constants (K value) of sawtooth oak and pinus thunbergii. 229 Give a more extended name of the table according to its content. At the bottom of the table, write the Correlation coefficient between which values were correlated.
In all Tables and throughout the text of the article Write all numbers up to tenths: 1.8 7.8, and Decomposition constants and correlation coefficient - up to hundredths of 0.38 and 0.97, etc.
The article is little value, but can be published if the authors write that it is not necessary to apply nitrogen to pine and oak forests
All the best
22.06.2023
Author Response
Dear Editor and Reviewers:
On behalf of my co-authors, we are very grateful to receive your comments to improve my manuscript. These comments are very positive and constructive views for my manuscript entitled ‘Effects of nitrogen deposition on leaf litter decomposition and soil organic carbon density in arid and barren rocky mountainous regions: a case study of Yimeng Mountain’ (ID: forests-2420761). The following are the responses and revisions I have made in response to the questions and suggestions of the reviewers, item by item. Thanks again for the hard work of the editors and reviewers.
Response to the comments of Reviewer # 3
Comment 1: The article is devoted to the use of different doses of nitrogen on the rate of decomposition of alpine oak and pine litter and on the response of litter nutrients. The effect was either very significant or negative. So, after a year of decomposition of the oak litter on the control without the introduction of nitrogen, 50% Corg remained in it, and 38-42% - with the introduction of 50-200 kg of nitrogen. And the addition of a large amount of N inhibited the release of C from pine needles.
It is difficult to understand who will apply nitrogen in highland forests. So need to write in the summary and conclusion that this is not necessary. Moreover, a similar effect has already been noted earlier. these findings are 350 consistent with previous studies that have shown a similar pattern of N addition effects 351 on leaf litter decomposition. Knorr et al. found that high N addition inhibited the decom-352 position of leaf litter with high lignin content but promoted the decomposition of leaf litter 353 with low lignin content [43].
Author’s Response: We thank the reviewer for the suggestion. Similarly, we agree that nitrogen application in mountainous areas is a meaningless act. We use anthropogenic nitrogen addition only to predict the potential environmental impacts and ongoing ecological significance of increasing nitrogen deposition in the future. We have added to this section in the introduction to make the introduction more understandable and relevant.
The study by Knorr et al. [1] is a meta-analysis with a large amount of data. We verified our proposed hypothesis 1 by comparing our results with the conclusion of the meta-analysis to determine whether N addition would have differential effects on leaf litter decomposition in the more N-limited Yimeng Mountains.
Comment 2: Table 2. Decomposition constants (K value) of sawtooth oak and pinus thunbergii. 229 Give a more extended name of the table according to its content. At the bottom of the table, write the Correlation coefficient between which values were correlated.
Author’s Response: Thanks to the reviewer for the reminder. We have revised the title of Table 2 and added the correlation coefficient in the last column of the table.
Comment 3: In all Tables and throughout the text of the article Write all numbers up to tenths: 1.8 7.8, and Decomposition constants and correlation coefficient - up to hundredths of 0.38 and 0.97, etc.
Author’s Response: Thanks to the reviewer for the comment. We checked all tables and made all numbers of decimal places consistent. We kept two to three decimal places because ecology is a discipline that is strongly influenced by the environment. Meanwhile, many of the effects of forests are cumulative in nature. Therefore, increasing the number of decimal places helps the reader to understand our results accurately.
Comment 4: The article is little value, but can be published if the authors write that it is not necessary to apply nitrogen to pine and oak forests
Author’s Response: Thanks to the reviewer for the comment. As we replied earlier. We agree that applying nitrogen in the forest is a meaningless act. We also would not and do not recommend applying nitrogen in forests. We use anthropogenic nitrogen addition only to predict the potential environmental impacts and ongoing ecological significance of increasing nitrogen deposition in the future. We have added this section in the introduction to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding on the reader's part.
- Knorr, M.; Frey, S.D. and Curtis, P.S. Nitrogen additions and litter decomposition: a meta-analysis. Ecology. 2005, 86, 3252-3257. https://doi.org/10.1890/05-0150
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
