Diversity of Soil Dwelling Collembola in a Forest, Vegetable and Tea Ecosystems of Assam, India

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1) Line 122, 125 and 126 : it is better to say “5 genus” not species, the material is identified to genus level, no species level, so Authors should  talk about genus not species.

lInes 122 and 123:  it is said “5 species i.e. Cyphoderus sp., Entomobrya sp., Isotoma sp., Folsomia sp. and Hypogastrura sp. representing 4 families i.e. Cyphoderidae, Entomobryidae, Isotomidae and Hypogastruridae” Which of the genus belongs to each family. It is interesting to accourate it.

Figure 3. Could be interesting not only to show relative abundance but frecuency of collembolla genus.

Line 146: p level to be statistically significant must be p<0.05, not ” P=0.05”,

Line 156. “Table 1. Seasonal variation of collembolan density in forest, agro and tea ecosystems” Please add the  meaning of “Nos./sq.m”, “S.Ed(±)” and  “CD (P=0.05)” and correct P<0.05

LINE 157 “Key soil chemo-edaphic factors were correlated with both the density and diversity” Here Authors talk about a statistical procedure, that they do not mention in Statistical Analysis. Please, include correlation analisys in Methods, Include the p value accepted as significative statistical results (p<0.05, p<0.01)

Author Response

1) Line 122, 125 and 126 : it is better to say “5 genus” not species, the material is identified to genus level, no species level, so Authors should  talk about genus not species.

Response: Done and incorporated in the MS

lInes 122 and 123:  it is said “5 species i.e. Cyphoderus sp., Entomobrya sp., Isotoma sp., Folsomia sp. and Hypogastrura sp. representing 4 families i.e. Cyphoderidae, Entomobryidae, Isotomidae and Hypogastruridae” Which of the genus belongs to each family. It is interesting to accourate it.

Response: The genus Isotoma and Folsomia both belongs to the same family Isotomidae  

Figure 3. Could be interesting not only to show relative abundance but frecuency of collembolla genus.

Response: Frequency of collembola genus included in the MS along with the relative abundance

Line 146: p level to be statistically significant must be p<0.05, not ” P=0.05”,

Response: Corrected with p<0.05 in the entire text and incorporated in the MS

Line 156. “Table 1. Seasonal variation of collembolan density in forest, agro and tea ecosystems” Please add the  meaning of “Nos./sq.m”, “S.Ed(±)” and  “CD (P=0.05)” and correct P<0.05

Response: Nos./sq.m meaning Number of collembolans per square meter; S.Ed meaning Standard Error of Difference and CD is the Critical Difference among various ecosystems 

LINE 157 “Key soil chemo-edaphic factors were correlated with both the density and diversity” Here Authors talk about a statistical procedure, that they do not mention in Statistical Analysis. Please, include correlation analisys in Methods, Include the p value accepted as significative statistical results (p<0.05, p<0.01)

Response: Incorporated in the Statistical analysis portion of the Materials and methods section

Reviewer 2 Report

Manuscript ID: sustainability-1316980
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Diversity of Soil Dwelling Collembola in a Forest, Tea and an Agroecosystem of Assam, India

Authors compared the collembolan biodiversity between forest and agroecosystem to evaluated the impact of land use on organism providing ecosystem services as decompositors. The datasets contribute to filling gaps in the global biodiversity and distribution of springtails and the information completes the data already presented in the previous works, Bhagawati, et al (2020). Diversity and density of Collembola as influenced by soil physico-chemical properties in fallow land ecosystem of Assam, India. Journal of Environmental Biology and Bhagawati, S., et al (2018). Impact of soil physicochemical properties on the density and diversity of Collembola in Majuli river island, Assam, India. Journal of Entomology and Zoology studies, 6, 837-842.

Broad comments

L59 and L66. A tee field is an agroecosystem where various management activities are done such as applying pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Thus, it is essential to specify what type of crop is present in the site indicated as agrosystem. Moreover, agrochemical treatments and tillage should be indicated because they could affect the biodiversity of springtails as previously reported in Fiera, C., Ulrich, W., Popescu, D., Buchholz, J., Querner, P., Bunea, C. I., ... & Zaller, J. G. (2020). Tillage intensity and herbicide application influence surface-active springtail (Collembola) communities in Romanian vineyards. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 300, 107006.     Abbas, M. J., & Parwez, H. (2020). Effect of habitat quality, microclimatic conditions and waste water contamination on diversity & distribution of Collembola community. Asian Journal of Advances in Research, 35-43.

 

Results should be revised. Authors identified only 4 genera Cyphoderus sp., Entomobrya sp., Isotoma sp., Folsomia sp. and Hypogastrura sp.  but not species.  A list of species should be done to evaluate the relative abundance of different species and their seasonal fluctuation density in the three sampled ecosystems,  see for ex

Twardowski, J. P., Hurej, M., & Gruss, I. (2016). Diversity and abundance of springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) in soil under 90-year potato monoculture in relation to crop rotation. Archives of and Soil Science, 62(8), 1158-1168.

Yin, R., Gruss, I., Eisenhauer, N., Kardol, P., Thakur, M. P., Schmidt, A., ... & Schädler, M. (2019). Land use modulates the effects of climate change on density but not community composition of Collembola. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 138, 107598.

 

 Specific comments

The title should be revised indicating the crop type of agroecosystem

Figure 2 How the monthly meteorological data of the study period were collected and the number of samplings per month should be indicated in the text.

L125 the authors state the phrase “5 species were only recorded in the forest ecosystem” but those indicated are 5 genera. A list of species found is necessary and analyses should be carried out on species. The Shannon diversity index (H) is an index that is commonly used to characterize species diversity in a community, not genera.

Table 1 Nos./ sq. m. do you mean n°s/m²

Table 2 the number of samples used to evaluate the soil propriety should be indicated. The values should be indicated as mean±SE.

I don't understand the difference between table 3 and 4.

Author Response

Broad comments

1. L59 and L66. A tee field is an agroecosystem where various management activities are done such as applying pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Thus, it is essential to specify what type of crop is present in the site indicated as agrosystem. Moreover, agrochemical treatments and tillage should be indicated because they could affect the biodiversity of springtails as previously reported .

Response: Summer vegetables followed by winter vegetables were present in the agroecosystems soil during the sampling period. Hence the agroecosystem was replaced by vegetable ecosystem in the whole text. Moreover, the effect of agrochemicals as well as tillage has also been incorporated in the text as suggested.  

2. Results should be revised. Authors identified only 4 genera Cyphoderus sp., Entomobrya sp., Isotoma sp., Folsomia sp. and Hypogastrura sp.  but not species.  A list of species should be done to evaluate the relative abundance of different species and their seasonal fluctuation density in the three sampled ecosystems,  see for ex

Response: Done as suggested and incorporated in the text. Species level identification could not be done due to less expertise in the field however different ecomorphs of collembolans recorded during the study period has been incorporated and their abundance in the 3 ecosystems were also incorporated in the MS.

 Specific comments

The title should be revised indicating the crop type of agroecosystem

Response: Done and incorporated in the MS

Figure 2 How the monthly meteorological data of the study period were collected and the number of samplings per month should be indicated in the text.

Response: The meteorological data were collected from India Meteorological Department recognized Agrometeorological Observatory, Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. Monthly data were the average of all days in that particular month. Incorporated in the MS.

L125 the authors state the phrase “5 species were only recorded in the forest ecosystem” but those indicated are 5 genera. A list of species found is necessary and analyses should be carried out on species. The Shannon diversity index (H) is an index that is commonly used to characterize species diversity in a community, not genera.

Response: Done and incorporated in the text

Table 1 Nos./ sq. m. do you mean n°s/m²

Response: Number of collembolans per m² 

Table 2 the number of samples used to evaluate the soil propriety should be indicated. The values should be indicated as mean±SE.

Response: Done and incorporated in the text

I don't understand the difference between table 3 and 4.

Response: Table 3 indicated the correlation of collembolan density with soil properties whereas the table 4 denoted the correlation of collembolan diversity with different soil properties.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

the text has been improved as requested.

Author Response

Point: The text has been improved as requested

Response: Yes Sir. I have incorporated all the information as suggested in the manuscripts. Furthermore, in the Discussion section, a paragraph is also incorporated and two sentences in conclusion parts to provide the link between my research work with the special issue of this esteem journal.