Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Change
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Aim of the paper is to analyze the inter-annual spatiotemporal changes of land use and ecosystem service values in the northern Tianshan Mountain region of Xinjiang (China) from 1990 to 2018 through GIS-based data and ecosystem service values. In order to improve the paper, the following suggestions are provided:
- Use the acronym ESV near to the first time that appears the "ecosistem service values" words, or in the lines 17-18 of the Abstract section;
- Summarize the results described in the Abstract, please refer only to the most important and to those for which there is an innovative contribution on existing knowledge;
- What are the "high-value accumulation areas" at lines 33 of Abstract?? Aren't mentioned before;
- The sentence explained at lines 47-48 of Introduction section is not very clear and takes the reader's knowledge of the subject for granted. Please, revise it in order to be more descriptive;
- At line 51 the "system" word is twice repeated in "ecosystem" and "system". Please, try to avoide this words' repetition in the entire paper;
- Revise the content of the Introduction in order to introduce, in fact, the readers to the importance of the ecosystem services benefits at national, local and international scale with the related characteristics and the existing regulatory framework provided at the regional or local scale in order to preserve and improve the benefits;
- Add a literature review section where the lines from 54 to 85 of the Introduction can be part of this new section. In particular, is suggested to refers to the works that are similar to the topic addressed;
- What is the contribution made from the study of Xie [11]? Please, explain clearly this step.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Chang”(ID: sustainability-1336536). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red and yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:
Responses to Reviewer #1’s Comments
1) Use the acronym ESV near to the first time that appears the "ecosistem service values" words, or in the lines 17-18 of the Abstract section;
Response: Thank you for your significant reminding. According to your suggestion, we corrected the above grammatical errors and Use acronyms correctly and polish the whole manuscript. (See line 16 of the manuscript for details)
2) Summarize the results described in the Abstract, please refer only to the most important and to those for which there is an innovative contribution on existing knowledge;
Response: Thank you for reminding us this point.Because the summary was too long, we refined the summary, improved the results section of the summary as you suggested, and summarized its contribution results.(See line 15-34 of the manuscript for details)
3)What are the "high-value accumulation areas" at lines 33 of Abstract?? Aren't mentioned before;
Response: Due to the condensing of the abstract, this sentence has been omitted, and it is now supplemented.
Original sentence:The high-value accumulation areas are mainly distributed in the mountainous areas of northern Tianshan and show an increasing trend, while the low-value accumulation areas are mainly concentrated in the oasis-desert transitional zone near the edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert and the southern desert area.
In order to further analyze the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the ecosystem service value, a fishing net tool was created based on the ArcGIS 10.2 platform. As well, the study area was divided into 6,284 grids with a size of 10 km×10 km each [36].so as to more intuitively show the changes in the ecosystem service value levels and clusters of the study area from 1990 to 2018.In ArcGIS, the natural breakpoint classification method is used to divide the ecosystem service value of the area north of the Tianshan Mountains into 6 levels from low to high during the study period.”The high value accumulation area” is a spatial display of the ESV gain area in the north of Tianshan Mountains.(See line 341-371 of the manuscript for details)
- The sentence explained at lines 47-48 of Introduction section is not very clear and takes the reader's knowledge of the subject for granted. Please, revise it in order to be more descriptive;
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions, combined with expert opinions and relevant influential literature, the author reimagined the introduction to make the article's point of view clear. Hope you can understand We will further improve the content of the introduction by reading relevant influential literature. Summarize this sentence and scientific progress to make the point of view of the article clear, and hope that the reviewers can accept it.(See line 37-54 of the manuscript for details)
We have cited the relevant literature in the appropriate place in the revised manuscript.
- At line 51 the "system" word is twice repeated in "ecosystem" and "system". Please, try to avoide this words' repetition in the entire paper;
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions. Due to the author's negligence, the "eco system" and "system" have been repeated twice by mistake, and the language has been modified.(See line 46 of the manuscript for details)
6)Revise the content of the Introduction in order to introduce, in fact, the readers to the importance of the ecosystem services benefits at national, local and international scale with the related characteristics and the existing regulatory framework provided at the regional or local scale in order to preserve and improve the benefits;
Response: Thanks for the reviewer’s comment.The introduction is an important part of the article. It objectively and fairly evaluates the work of the predecessors, and highlights their own methods and advantages. Based on the reviewer’s suggestion, the introduction has been revised to clarify the importance of ecosystem services and related background research.(See line 37-98 of the manuscript for details)
7) Add a literature review section where the lines from 54 to 85 of the Introduction can be part of this new section. In particular, is suggested to refers to the works that are similar to the topic addressed;
Response: Thanks for the reviewer’s comment.According to requirements, modify the introduction in the text.(See line 37-98 of the manuscript for details)
8) What is the contribution made from the study of Xie [11]? Please, explain clearly this step.
Response:Xie et al[1] based on the classification of ecosystem service functions by Costanza et al[2], proposed an improved ecosystem service value coefficient based on the actual conditions of the Chinese ecosystem, and established a set of ecosystem service value coefficients that can be widely used for evaluation. Ecosystem service value coefficients of Chinese cities[3], islands[4] and watersheds[5] and other ecosystems.This coefficient is currently widely used in various studies on the value of ecosystem services across the country [6-8].This study also uses the equivalent factor method, and the evaluation results are reliable.
Related Supplementary Literature：
- Xie, G.D.; Zhang, C.X.; Zhang, C.S.; et al. The value of ecosystem services in China. Resources Science, 2005, 37, 1740-1746.
- Costanza, R.; D'Arge, R.; Groot, R.D.; et al. The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 1997, 387, 253-260.
- Li, M.T.; Zhou, Z.X. Positive and negative ecosystem services evaluation andnits spatial pattern analysis on urban landscape:Acase study of Xi'an City. Acta Geographica sinica, 2016, 71,1215-1230.
- Yu, L. L.; Zhang, X.X.;Li, Y. F.; et al. Coastal ecosystem services and their spatial-temporal variation in Haikou,China. ActaEcologica Sinica, 2016, 36, 2431-2441．
- Wang, B.; Zhao, J.; Hu, X.F. Spatial pattern analysis of ecosystem services based on InVEST in Heihe ï¼²iver Basin. Chinese Journal of Ecology, 2016, 35,2783-2792.
- [109] Song F, Su F L, Mi C X, et al. Analysis of driving forces on wetland ecosystem services value change: A case in Northeast China[J]. The Science of the total environment, 2020, 751: 141778.
- Geng, T.W.; Chen, H.; Zhang, H.; et al. Ecosystem service value of Shaanxi Province based on GWR Analysis of characteristics of temporal and spatial evolution and influencing factors. Journal of Natural Resources,2020, 35,1714-1727.
- Zheng, D.F.; Wang, Y.Y.; Cao, Y.Q.; et al. Classification and spatiotemporal patterns of ecological well-being based on ecosystem services: Taking China’s prefecture-level and above cities for example[J]. Resources Science, 2020, 42,1110-1122.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you for submitting to Sustainability journal in MDPI. The work seems to be interesting by few modifications and clarifications are required.
- Have you used Landsat - TM images? If yes, please explain the pre-processing steps?
- Does your study was validated with some procedure? If not, please validate and submit the results in terms of overall accuracy?
- Please cite only recent publications (within a span of years).
- I have the publications cited by the author Dr. Wang which seems to be same kind of work on different areas? If so, what is the novelty of this work?
Thank you.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Chang”(ID: sustainability-1336536). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red and yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:
Response to Reviewer # 2’s Comments
1) Have you used Landsat - TM images? If yes, please explain the pre-processing steps?
Response: Thanks for the reviewer’s comment. The land use data employed in this study come from the Data Center of Resources and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.resdc.cn/). The four periods of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018 were selected at a spatial resolution of 30 m,Select the northern Tianshan Mountains for image processing and preparation. The image preprocessing operations are all carried out in the ENVI software, including radiometric correction, atmospheric correction, geometric correction, and image mosaic and cropping.
- radiometric correction:Eliminate the interference and get the true reflectance data.This article uses the FLAASH (Fast Line-of-Sight Atomosphereric Analysis of Spectrial Hypercubes) atmospheric correction module in the ENVI5.1 software for processing.
- Atmospheric correction :Eliminate errors caused by atmospheric scattering, absorption, and reflection.
- Geometric correction:GCP is used to correct the geometric deformation caused by various factors, to locate the image in geographic coordinates, and to obtain real coordinate information.About 60 registration control points (RCP) with the same name are selected from the remote sensing images and corresponding topographic maps in each period to complete the geometric correction of the remote sensing images. In the geometric correction process, the registration error is controlled within 0.5 pixels to meet the accuracy requirements.
- ImageMosaic and cutting:This article uses the Mosaicking/Seamless Mosaic tool in ENVI5.1 to complete the mosaic processing of the image.
- According to the land use classification system, the land use types are divided into: cultivated land, forest land, grassland, water area, construction land and unused land. Through human-computer interaction interpretation, the 4th phase of land use data in the north of Tianshan Mountains was obtained, and the interpretation results were verified by field investigation and Google Earth historical imagery.
2) Does your study was validated with some procedure? If not, please validate and submit the results in terms of overall accuracy?
Response: To determine whether the value evaluation of ecosystem services is accurate, the Sensitivity Index (CS) is introduced to measure.The calculation formula is:
The calculation results are shown in the table below:
|
CS |
||||||
|
Year |
Cultivated Land |
Forest Land VC±0.5 |
Grassland VC±0.5 |
Water VC±0.5 |
Construction Land VC±0.5 |
Unused Land VC±0.5 |
|
1990 |
0.07990 |
0.19710 |
0.51335 |
0.18368 |
0.00000 |
0.05013 |
|
2000 |
0.08044 |
0.18922 |
0.50895 |
0.17152 |
0.00000 |
0.04982 |
|
2010 |
0.09140 |
0.18789 |
0.49792 |
0.17360 |
0.00000 |
0.04917 |
|
2018 |
0.12498 |
0.12151 |
0.57971 |
0.12409 |
0.00000 |
0.04962 |
The sensitivity index of each land use type is less than 1, indicating that the ecosystem service value of the study area is inelastic to the value coefficient, and the research results are credible.( See manuscript 321-340 for details)
3) Please cite only recent publications (within a span of years).
Response:Thank you for your valuable suggestions. Combining the suggestions of other teachers based on the article, I made more revisions to the introduction of the manuscript, and quoted more convincing documents published in recent years in the appropriate places of the revised manuscript.We have cited related literature in the proper place of the revised manuscript.( See manuscript 511 for details)
4) I have the publications cited by the author Dr. Wang which seems to be same kind of work on different areas? If so, what is the novelty of this work?
Response:Thanks for your comment.My elaboration on this will consist of the following 3 points:
1.Xinjiang is bounded by the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the northern Xinjiang is a mountain basin system, and the southern Xinjiang is composed of two mountains and one basin, and the Taklimakan Desert, the largest desert in China, is distributed. Due to the difference in topography, land use/land cover (LULC) and climate change, the formation and distribution of ecosystem services in the southern and northern Xinjiang will also have huge differences.Due to the different natural conditions, northern Xinjiang has relatively high rainfall, arable land, woodland, grassland, and water bodies account for a large percentage of unit area, land use changes drastically, and unit ecosystem service value is also different from that of southern Xinjiang. There are obvious differences.
2.Due to the different natural and geographical conditions, the area of arable land, woodland, grassland, and water bodies in the north of the Tianshan Mountains accounted for a larger proportion than that of the southern Xinjiang, and the land use changed drastically. In my opinion, whether changes in land use area, method and spatial distribution pattern will have a significant impact on the value of regional ecosystem services is of great significance.
3.In the future study and research, I would like to conduct a comparative analysis of the ecosystem service value in southern Xinjiang and northern Xinjiang, and explore in depth the evolution of ESV under natural, social and economic driving factors.
Thanks to the teacher for the advice in my article, I will read relevant influential literature, cultivate my creative ability, and improve the content of the paper
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Based on the evaluation of ecosystem service function change characteristics of land use change in Northern Xinjiang, the spatial and temporal patterns of land use change and ecosystem service value (ESV) are quantitatively analyzed by using the equivalent factor method, sensitivity index and spatial correlation research, which is a topic of concern to researchers in related fields. However, some improvements are needed before the paper is accepted for publication. My opinion is as follows:
The abstract is too long. You need to refine your abstract, and highlight your innovations.
The second chapter lacks the explanation of Table 1.
On the basis of summarizing the experimental results, the fifth chapter should point out the innovation of this paper and the progress space and improvement direction of this experiment.
As a whole, the article is an empirical paper, and the method used is not proposed by the author. Are there other analytical methods? Can similar conclusions be obtained by other analytical methods? These authors had better be able to elaborate.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Chang”(ID: sustainability-1336536). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red and yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:
Responses to Reviewer #3’s Comments
1) The abstract is too long. You need to refine your abstract, and highlight your innovations.
Response:Thank you very much for your suggestion. I have modified the abstract part in the article,If there is any deficiency, please give more advice .(See manuscript 15-34 lines for details)
2)The second chapter lacks the explanation of Table 1.
Response:Thank you for your significant reminding.It is explained in the text.Due to the length of the article, the author did not elaborate in the article, I will give a detailed answer in the manuscript,hope you understand.We added the new detail analysis in Lines 156-158.
In this study, the average price, yield, and sown area of food crops in administrative units north of Tianshan Mountains from 1990 to 2018 were collected through statistics,Calculate according to the formula:
Ea is the value of food crops per year of 1hm2 arable land (yuan/hm2);i is the type of crop, the main crops in this area are wheat and corn;Pi is the national average value of food crops in i (yuan/kg);qi is the yield per unit of i crop (kg/hm2);mi is the area of i kinds of food crops (hm2);M is the total area of n food crops (hm2);1/7 means that the value of ecosystem services per unit area is 1/7 of the output value per unit area of the main food crops in the region that year.
The value equivalent factor of a single ecosystem service in this area is calculated by the formula to be 1,881.82 yuan/hm2, and the service value coefficient per unit area of the North Tianshan mountains ecosystem is obtained (Table 1).
Table 1. Ecosystem Service Value (ESV) Coefficient for Northern Tianshan (yuan/hm2)
|
Ecosystem Service Function |
Land Use Type |
|||||
|
Cultivated Land |
Forest Land |
Grassland |
Water |
Construction Land |
Unused Land |
|
|
Gas regulation |
940.91 |
6586.37 |
1505.46 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
|
Climate regulation |
1674.82 |
5080.92 |
1693.64 |
865.64 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
|
Water conservation |
1129.09 |
6021.83 |
1505.46 |
38351.50 |
0.00 |
56.45 |
|
Soil formation and protection |
2747.46 |
7339.10 |
3669.55 |
18.82 |
0.00 |
37.64 |
|
Waste disposal |
3086.19 |
2465.18 |
2465.18 |
34211.50 |
0.00 |
18.82 |
|
Biodiversity conservation |
1336.09 |
6134.74 |
2051.18 |
4685.73 |
0.00 |
639.82 |
|
Food production |
1881.82 |
188.18 |
564.55 |
188.18 |
0.00 |
18.82 |
|
Raw material production |
188.18 |
4892.73 |
94.09 |
18.82 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
|
Entertainment culture |
18.82 |
2408.73 |
75.27 |
8167.10 |
82.60 |
18.82 |
|
Total |
13003.38 |
41117.78 |
13624.38 |
86507.29 |
82.60 |
790.36 |
- On the basis of summarizing the experimental results, the fifth chapter should point out the innovation of this paper and the progress space and improvement direction of this experiment.
Response:Thanks for your suggestion. I have already described this aspect in the discussion part of Chapter 4. (See manuscript 474-482 lines for details)
4)As a whole, the article is an empirical paper, and the method used is not proposed by the author. Are there other analytical methods? Can similar conclusions be obtained by other analytical methods? These authors had better be able to elaborate.
Response:Thanks for the reviewer’s comment. This paper uses the spatial autocorrelation analysis method based on the grid scale, combined with the coupling relationship between land use change and ecosystem service value to intuitively reflect the evolution characteristics of the ESV spatial distribution pattern.Spatial data analysis is used to measure whether the distribution of spatial variables has agglomeration, so as to reveal their spatial interaction.Among them, global spatial autocorrelation and local spatial autocorrelation.Therefore, the analysis with Global Moran’s I and LISA clustering is suitable for this study.In addition, the relevant literature confirms that with the help of the cold and hot spot analysis tool of ArcGIS 10.2 software, and select the statistically significant cold spots and hot spots with a confidence of more than 90% in the obtained results.Based on this, the dynamic changes of ESV in the study area are expressed in space, and similar conclusions can be obtained.In the later study and research, I will try to combine the driving factors to explore the driving force of social economy, technology, population and nature on land use change and ecological service value.
Thank you again for your positive and constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscript.We hope you will find our revised manuscript acceptable for publication.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Evaluation the ecosystem service value is important to understand the ecosystem health status, and therefore it is highly necessary for us to make reasonable using policies. The ecosystem service value trends of the Northern Xinjiang were analyzed based on the land use data, it concluded that the ecosystem value declined from 2010 to 2018. The results are useful for local manager to make sustainable land use strategies. However, there are some major points to decrease the value of this work. I can not recommend it publish in this journal.
- The accurate data are most important, it will greatly affect area of every land use type. Although the data were from public data resources, however, the data were further analyzed based on relative old literature, and it was difficult to evaluate whether this method was suitable for this area.
- The ecosystem service value is not only related to ecosystem type, but also ecosystem structure. From 1990-2018, many policies for ecosystem restoration were developed in this area. Generally, the ecosystem structure was improved. Some data should be included in the study, such as LAI, NPP etc., to incases the accuracy for ecosystem service evaluation.
- There are numerous literatures for ecosystem service evaluation in China, the results in this manuscript should be compared with them.
- The names of land use type were different in main text and the legend of Table 4. This difference further strength the impression of the possible problems of data classification of land use type.
- Line 425, check the Latin name.
- The manuscript needs throughout language check by native English speaker.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Chang”(ID: sustainability-1336536). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red and yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:
Responses to Reviewer #4’s Comments
1）The accurate data are most important, it will greatly affect area of every land use type. Although the data were from public data resources, however, the data were further analyzed based on relative old literature, and it was difficult to evaluate whether this method was suitable for this area.
Response: Thanks to the teacher's professional evaluation, I have revised the manuscript documentation. The content of the literature, as an argument to support the thesis, is an important indicator of the feasibility of the research. It is my negligence. I hope my teacher forgive me.(See line 520 in the manuscript for details)
In this paper, the method of combining equivalent factor method, sensitivity index and spatial correlation research is used to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of land use change and ecosystem service value in the study area.In this study, the equivalent factor method was used to calculate the ecosystem service value of the study area. In order to determine whether the ecosystem service value evaluation is accurate, a sensitivity index (CS) needs to be introduced to measure it.The calculation results are shown in the table below:
|
CS |
||||||
|
Year |
Cultivated Land |
Forest Land VC±0.5 |
Grassland VC±0.5 |
Water VC±0.5 |
Construction Land VC±0.5 |
Unused Land VC±0.5 |
|
1990 |
0.07990 |
0.19710 |
0.51335 |
0.18368 |
0.00000 |
0.05013 |
|
2000 |
0.08044 |
0.18922 |
0.50895 |
0.17152 |
0.00000 |
0.04982 |
|
2010 |
0.09140 |
0.18789 |
0.49792 |
0.17360 |
0.00000 |
0.04917 |
|
2018 |
0.12498 |
0.12151 |
0.57971 |
0.12409 |
0.00000 |
0.04962 |
The sensitivity index of each land use type is less than 1, indicating that the ecosystem service value of the study area is inelastic to the value coefficient, and the research results are credible.(See line 329-349 in the manuscript for details).
- The ecosystem service value is not only related to ecosystem type, but also ecosystem structure. From 1990-2018, many policies for ecosystem restoration were developed in this area. Generally, the ecosystem structure was improved. Some data should be included in the study, such as LAI, NPP etc., to incases the accuracy for ecosystem service evaluation.
Response:Thanks to the reviwerfor suggesting that due to insufficient years of existing NPP data, it cannot be used in this study. Consider using the existing NDVI data to explore the temporal and spatial dynamics of natural vegetation, and combine LUCC and ESV to carry out in-depth research to ensure the accuracy of ecosystem service assessment. - There are numerous literatures for ecosystem service evaluation in China, the results in this manuscript should be compared with them.
Response:Thanks for the reviewer’s comment.The author has revised the introduction part with the help of related documents(See line 46-108in the manuscript for details).This research is carried out to explore the characteristics of land use and ecosystem service value changes in the area north of Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang.Xinjiang is bounded by Tianshan Mountains, and its natural climate, topography and landforms are obviously different from those of southern Xinjiang.Then LUCC are different, which will inevitably affect changes in ecosystem services.Therefore, this article analyzes at different scales in Xinjiang to explore the changing trend of ecosystem service value. - The names of land use type were different in main text and the legend of Table 4. This difference further strength the impression of the possible problems of data classification of land use type.
Response:Thank you for your suggestion, the author has revised it in the manuscript. Keep the content of the main text and the content of the drawings consistent.(See line 260in the manuscript for details) - Line 425, check the Latin name.
Response:Thank you for your suggestion, I have modified it in the manuscript.(See line 420in the manuscript for details) - The manuscript needs throughout language check by native English speaker.
Response:Thank you again for your positive and constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscript.We carefully modified the English grammar and sentence structure by the native English countries experts. We would like to choose the English editing service provided by MDPI if you think it needs to be modified.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The efforts made by yhe Authors in order to improve the research paper have been appreciated. Furthermore, some other suggestions are provided:
- Avoid the word "obvious" (for example at line 30) because if the result is so obvious does not make any contribution on the knowledge!! Be careful
- "scolars at home" (line 43) is a bad english translation...please use an adequate language
- An important improvement can be done for the final lines of the Introduction. The references appears to be not linked to the previous contents of the section, therefore, a new section or subparagraph can be useful in order to avoid confusion. In particular, the new subparagraph must contains all the national and international research works carried out on the similar topic by taking into account also some of these ones:
- Nesticò, A., Endreny, T., Guarini, M. R., Sica, F., & Anelli, D. (2020, July). Real Estate Values, Tree Cover, and Per-Capita Income: An Evaluation of the Interdependencies in Buffalo City (NY). In International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (pp. 913-926). Springer, Cham.
- Sagoff, M. (2011). The quantification and valuation of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 70(3), 497-502.
- The most important international policy paper on the importance to preserve the ecosystem services value are missing. Please provide for it
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Chang”(ID: sustainability-1336536). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in blue and grey in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:
Responses to Reviewer Comments
1) Avoid the word "obvious" (for example at line 30) because if the result is so obvious does not make any contribution on the knowledge!! Be careful
Response: Thank you for your important reminder. Based on your suggestions, we corrected the above grammatical errors and checked the entire manuscript.(See line 31 of the manuscript for details)
Sentence:The spatial distribution pattern of ESV in the northern Tianshans is apparent, showing high in the north and southwest, and low in the central and southeast portions of the study area. Additionally, there is an visible spatial correlation and aggregation in ESV.
2)"scolars at home" (line 43) is a bad english translation...please use an adequate language
Response: Thank you for reminding us this point.We are very sorry for our incorrect writing and "scolars at home" has been changed to "Domestic scholar" and highlighted In the text.(See line 44 of the manuscript for details)
3)An important improvement can be done for the final lines of the Introduction. The references appears to be not linked to the previous contents of the section, therefore, a new section or subparagraph can be useful in order to avoid confusion. In particular, the new subparagraph must contains all the national and international research works carried out on the similar topic by taking into account also some of these ones:Nesticò, A., Endreny, T., Guarini, M. R., Sica, F., & Anelli, D. (2020, July). Real Estate Values, Tree Cover, and Per-Capita Income: An Evaluation of the Interdependencies in Buffalo City (NY). In International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (pp. 913-926). Springer, Cham.
Sagoff, M. (2011). The quantification and valuation of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 70(3), 497-502.
Response: Thank you for your suggestion.
- I have improved the last few lines of the introduction.(See line 87-106 of the manuscript for details)
Sentence:In summary, it is feasible to study the value of regional ecosystem services based on LUCC. However, the multiple time series and spatial scales intuitively show that the spatial degree of ESV is differentiated, and that GIS and RS technologies thus need to be combined. At the same time, multiple periods of land use or remote sensing image data are used for spatial superposition, and the law of regional land transfer is quantitatively studied by methods such as transfer matrix and land use dynamics. Against this research backdrop, ESV temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics can be explored based on spatial statistical analysis [33].In China’s arid northwest, the Tianshan Mountain region is a sprawling and multi-featured zone. The overall terrain of this area is high in the west and low in the east, and presents a mountain-oasis-desert transitional ecological unit with a complete spectrum of vertical landscape belts [34]. From an economic perspective, northern Tianshan Mountains is a focal point for advocating the economic development of China’s renowned "One Belt, One Road" and includes key petrochemical and light industrial bases [35].However, as the population grows in this region, deforestation and grazing are intensifying the demand for land resources, resulting in forest land degradation and land desertification. The disorderly development of industry and mining has destroyed much of the surface vegetation, causing soil fertility to decline and the ecological environment to become increasingly fragile [36]. In light of this situation,These findings will provide a scientific basis for the sustainable development of land resources in the arid area of northwest China, one that takes into consideration the balance of the regional ecological environment.
- In order to make the content of the article coherent and clear, add a new section and cite relevant literature to study ESV domestic and foreign research reviews to avoid confusion in the content of the article.(See line 50-70 of the manuscript for details)
paragraph:In short, scholars such as Daily and Costanza [12,14] clarified the definition of ecosystem and laid the foundation for the development of ecosystem service assessment research. Domestic related research was introduced by scholars such as Ouyang[7], Zhao[15], Xie[8] et al. On this basis, many domestic scholars have carried out a lot of research work related to ecosystem services using value and material quality evaluation methods.Domestic scholars Xie et al. [16] refer to Costanza [12] based on the relevant estimation research the classification of ecosystem service functions, and according to the actual situation of the Chinese ecosystem, conducted in-depth studies on different spatial scales, and corrected the ecosystem service value coefficients. establish a set of service value coefficients that can be widely used to evaluate ecosystems such as cities[17], islands[18], and watersheds[19],further advances the evaluation research process of the value of ecosystem services. In recent years, the unit value of different regions has been calculated based on the value equivalent of basic ecosystem services, and the equivalent correction has been made by comparing grain yield, net profit, NDVI, NPP, precipitation or soil conservation adjustment with global or national average levels, and corresponding to expert experience. In combination, determine the unit area value of ecosystem services [20-22].The functional value method uses actual market price data to reflect the actual preferences or costs of individuals, but requires sufficient quantity, cost, and market price data to fully analyze the marginal changes in ecosystem services [23-24].In addition, with the support of 3S technology, many scholars have studied the area's habitat protection, environmental function zoning, ecological compensation policies, and ecological economic accounting[25].
- in the appropriate place of the revised manuscript cited more convincing literature published in recent years.(See line 517of the manuscript for details)
- OuYang, Z.Y.; Wang, X.K.; Miao，; et al. Aprimary study on Chinese terrestrial ecosystem services and theur ecological-economic values. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 1999,19,609-613.
- Daily G C. Nature’s Services: Socuetal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems[J]. Pacific Conservation Biology, 1997, 6, 220-221.
- Zhao, J.Z.; Xiao, H.; Wu, G. Comparison analysis on physical and value assessment methods for ecosystems services. Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, 2000, 11, 290-292.
- Xie, G.D.; Zhang, C.X.; Zhang, L.M.; et al. Improvement of the Evaluation Method for Ecosystem Service Value Based on Per Unit Area. Journal of natural Resources, 2015 ,30, 1243-1254.
- Shi,Y.; Wang, R.S.; Huang, J.L.; et al. An analysis of the spatial and temporal changes in Chinese terrestrial ecosystem service functions[J]. Science Bulletin, 2012, 57, 2120–
- Liu, M.Z.; Jia, Y.G.; Zhao, J.J.; et al. Revegetation projects significantly improved ecosystem service values in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China in recent 20 years. Science of The Total Enviroment.2021,788,147756.
- Luo, P.; Mu, D.R.; Xue, H.; et al. Flood inundation assessment for the Hanoi Central Area, Vietnam under historical and extreme rainfall conditions.Scientific Reports, 2018, 8:12623.
- Wu, G.Y.; Dong, R.; Yu, F.W. Estimation of Ecological Compensation Standards for Small Watersheds: Based on the Value of Ecological Service Function. 2019, 35, 210-214+229.
- A Nesticò, Endreny T, Guarini M R, et al. Real Estate Values, Tree Cover, and Per-Capita Income: An Evaluation of the Interdependencies in Buffalo City (NY)[M]. In International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications,2020.913-926.
- Springer, Cham.; Sagoff, M. The quantification and valuation of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 70, 497-502.
- The most important international policy paper on the importance to preserve the ecosystem services value are missing. Please provide for it
Response: Thank you for your valuable suggestions.I have added to the manuscript the relevant literature on the ecosystem service value policy and its importance is highlighted in the manuscript(See line518 of the manuscript for details)
Related Supplementary Literature：
- Wang, X.M.; Xu, M.; Zhang, Y.; et al. Proceedings of the 2018 2nd International Workshop on Renewable Energy and Development[C]. Evaluation of Eco-economy Harmony and Spatial Evolution of the Urban Agglomeration Area in The Great Pearl River Delta[A]. Hong Kong Global Research Association, 2018, 8.
- Ahammad R, Stacey N, Sunderland T. Analysis of forest-related policies for supporting ecosystem services-based forest management in Bangladesh. Ecosystem Service, 2021,48, 101235.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
I think the manuscript was well revised based on the comments.
Author Response
Dear Prof and reviewer:
On behalf of my co-author, we would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their comments on the title "Evaluation on the Change Characteristics of Ecosystem Service Function in the Northern Xinjiang Based on Land Use Change" (ID: sustainability-1336536).
We have carefully studied your professional suggestions on the manuscript and have revised the manuscript documentation. First of all, you have questions about the accuracy of the results of my assessment of ecosystem services, and suggested that in my research, I should use LAI, NPP, NDVI, precipitation or soil conservation adjustments, etc. to compare with global or national averages to perform equivalent corrections to determine ecosystem services. The value per unit area has strong credibility. Secondly, the literature cited in the article is not new or influential. The content of the literature, as an argument to support the thesis, is an important indicator of the feasibility of the research. It is my negligence. I hope the reviewer forgive me.
Thanks again to the reviewer on suggesting to further improve this manuscript,we have studied comments carefully and have made corresponding corrections which we hope meet with approval.
Thank you and best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Wang yang
