Realization and Prediction of Ecological Restoration Potential of Vegetation in Karst Areas

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

          Accurate evaluation and prediction of the potential ecological restoration of vegetation can provide practical technology and theoretical basis for vegetation restoration in karst areas. At present, the journal has not met the publication requirements, and the comments are as follows:

 

1.     To accurately evaluate and predict the magnitude of ecological restoration in such karst areas, first to clarify the contribution of restoration engineering and human intervention measures to ecological restoration. If the contribution of human intervention is large, then the reliability of the prediction results is low; if it is mainly natural restoration, then the assessment and prediction of this paper has certain guidance.

2.     From the perspective of landform affecting ecological restoration, it is more reference value for karst landform to evaluate the ecological restoration of micro-landform such as dissolution depression, peak forest and peak cluster. It is suggested that the relationship between micro-landform and elevation and slope should be further clarified.

3.     The vegetation types in the paper are too simple to classify trees, shrubs and herbs, so the trees and shrubs should be fully discussed in the background of the research area based on ground observation.

4.     Temperature and precipitation are the leading factors affecting ecological recovery. This paper mainly predicts the spatial growth of ecological recovery based on the spatial scale analysis, and ignores the fluctuations or mutations in climate time, so the accuracy of assessment and prediction will also be reduced.

5.     The contents of the abstract and conclusions are basically repeated and revised.

Author Response

Accurate evaluation and prediction of the potential ecological restoration of vegetation can provide practical technology and theoretical basis for vegetation restoration in karst areas. At present, the journal has not met the publication requirements, and the comments are as follows:

1. To accurately evaluate and predict the magnitude of ecological restoration in such karst areas, first to clarify the contribution of restoration engineering and human intervention measures to ecological restoration. If the contribution of human intervention is large, then the reliability of the prediction results is low; if it is mainly natural restoration, then the assessment and prediction of this paper has certain guidance.

Very good comments. Previous studies showed that the changes of ecological restoration in karst areas in China are in good consistency with climate change and the implementation of ecological engineering (Wang et al., 2019). Therefore, the ecological restoration measures in this region are mainly natural restoration like closing hillsides to facilitate afforestation, and ecological construction projects based on human intervention. This study mainly discussed the evaluation and prediction of potential ecological restoration in karst areas of Guangxi under natural restoration, in order to provide supports for ecological construction projects based on human intervention.

 

References：Wang K L,Yue Y M,Chen H S,et al．The comprehensive treatment of karst rocky desertification and its regional restoration effects．Acta Ecologica Sinica，2019，39( 20) : 7432-7440．

 

2. From the perspective of landform affecting ecological restoration, it is more reference value for karst landform to evaluate the ecological restoration of micro-landform such as dissolution depression, peak forest and peak cluster. It is suggested that the relationship between micro-landform and elevation and slope should be further clarified.

Thank you very much for the good comments. We agreed. There is a certain relationship between micro landform and altitude and slope in karst areas, but currently we did not quantitatively identify the spatial distribution of micro landform in this area. In further studies, we would like to use high-resolution satellite remote sensing data to extract the spatial distribution of micro landforms and quantify the impact of micro landforms on ecological restoration.

 

3. The vegetation types in the paper are too simple to classify trees, shrubs and herbs, so the trees and shrubs should be fully discussed in the background of the research area based on ground observation.

Thanks a lot for the good comments. The vegetation types in karst areas of Guangxi are mainly shrubs, with only small number of arbors. In this study, the medium resolution Landsat 8 satellite remote sensing image were used, and only the first-class classification results of vegetation cover types (forest, shrub, grassland and cultivated land) could be obtained, so it is difficult to classify arbor, shrub and other vegetation types in more detail. In the future, we would like to use satellite remote sensing images with higher variability to obtain more detailed information on vegetation types such as trees and shrubs, then analyze the impact of vegetation types on ecological restoration.

 

4. Temperature and precipitation are the leading factors affecting ecological recovery. This paper mainly predicts the spatial growth of ecological recovery based on the spatial scale analysis, and ignores the fluctuations or mutations in climate time, so the accuracy of assessment and prediction will also be reduced.

Very good comments. The interannual changes of temperature and precipitation in karst areas of Guangxi in recent 20 years are indeed fluctuating. However, there are certain characteristics in the spatial distribution of regional climate factors in long time series. We used partial correlation analysis and complex correlation analysis to analyze the correlation between ecological quality index and temperature and precipitation based on pixel scale, and tested the correlation significance using T and F test. We found that there were differences in the correlation significance between ecological quality index and climate factors in different pixels. The change of ecological vegetation quality in some regions was closely related to climate change, indicating that climate factor was one of the driving factors of ecological vegetation restoration. Therefore, according to the principle of ecological evolution driven zoning (Chen et al., 2001), using the significance of partial correlation and multiple correlation between ecological quality and climate (temperature and precipitation), we divided the climate driving zone into strong driving zone of temperature and precipitation, temperature-dominated driving zone, precipitation-dominated driving zone, weak driving zone of temperature and precipitation, and non-climate driving zone. In the corresponding regions, the impact of climatic conditions on ecological restoration was similar. Therefore, it was appropriate to evaluate and predict the status of ecological vegetation restoration by using the climatic conditions of similar areas.

 

References：Chen Yunhao, Li Xiaobing, Shi Peijun, 2001. Variation in NDVI driven by climate factors across China during 1983-1992[J]. Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, 25(6): 716-720.

 

5. The contents of the abstract and conclusions are basically repeated and revised.

Good comments. We revised the abstract and conclusion.

Reviewer 2 Report

This scientific article that we have appraised is a high quality work.

It is well written, clear, precise, relevant in its form and especially in terms of its demonstration. The methodology is clearly presented, the demonstration is of quality and allows a valid answer to the questions asked. The figures are numerous and really support the demonstration.

The bibliographical references are numerous, recent, in short it is a very relevant scientific analysis.

This excellent quality research work deserves to be validated as it is.

Author Response

This scientific article that we have appraised is a high quality work.

Many thanks!

 

It is well written, clear, precise, relevant in its form and especially in terms of its demonstration. The methodology is clearly presented, the demonstration is of quality and allows a valid answer to the questions asked. The figures are numerous and really support the demonstration.

Thanks a lot!

 

The bibliographical references are numerous, recent, in short it is a very relevant scientific analysis.

Thank you!

This excellent quality research work deserves to be validated as it is.

Thank you so much!

Reviewer 3 Report

General comments: This paper presents the vegetation ecological quality index in Karst area of China. Though the study is interesting, the motivation of the study and the objective of the study in not clearly presented. Methods is okay but the analysis part is combined with results which is not a general way of writing a manuscript. If this is the format of the journal, I have no objection. Results and discussion can be improved in writing style.

 

Specific comments:

L24: “poten-tial”. Please correct the spelling.

 

L26: “pre-diction”. Please correct the spelling.

L29: “vegeta-tion”. correct the spelling.

L55-L56: “Vimilar”. This may be a spelling mistake, but this is not a correct word here.

L61: “karst areas”. If you also include the name of the country in which “karst areas” occurs, this will give better understanding for readers. You might have written in method section, but it would be better to make it clear when you used “karst areas” for the first time.

L63-L64: What scientific problems exist due to vegetation destruction?

L64-65: what is “northern desertification”. You may know well about northern desertification, but readers may not know. You should introduce these terns when using for the first time.

L111: “little detailed research”. What is that little detailed research? What this research says? You need to review them carefully.

L152: Could you also include the map of China along with the currently presented map of study area.

L 237-L260: Formula presented here are basic and simple one. I don’t think any additional value of presenting them in the form of equation. You can simply write what you used in the analysis such as linear correlation coefficient,  partial correlations coefficient, multiple correlation coefficient etc.

L297: “Results and analysis”. I am not convinced here for using the word “analysis”. I am not sure if this is the format of the journal, otherwise you should present your analysis in the methods section not in result section.

 

L311: “natural disasters”. What are those natural disasters? You should specify if there are. This is a very broad term.

 

L318 – L319: Spelling mistake in the legend in figure 1 should be corrected. “inde”, I am not sure about this word but looks like it is “index”.

L323-324: some information is missing in Table 1. “Proportion/%” for 2015-2019?

L351-352: What is the meaning of T1, T2, T3 and T4 in figure 5 and figure 5. It must be clearly mentioned in the figure caption.

Author Response

General comments: This paper presents the vegetation ecological quality index in Karst area of China. Though the study is interesting, the motivation of the study and the objective of the study in not clearly presented. Methods is okay but the analysis part is combined with results which is not a general way of writing a manuscript. If this is the format of the journal, I have no objection. Results and discussion can be improved in writing style.

Specific comments:

L24: “poten-tial”. Please correct the spelling.

Sorry for the incorrect spelling. Revised.

 

L26: “pre-diction”. Please correct the spelling.

Sorry for the incorrect spelling. Revised.

 

L29: “vegeta-tion”. correct the spelling.

Sorry for the incorrect spelling. Revised.

 

L55-L56: “Vimilar”. This may be a spelling mistake, but this is not a correct word here.

Sorry for this mistake. Revised.

 

L61: “karst areas”. If you also include the name of the country in which “karst areas” occurs, this will give better understanding for readers. You might have written in method section, but it would be better to make it clear when you used “karst areas” for the first time.

Thanks a lot for this good comments. We revised.

 

L63-L64: What scientific problems exist due to vegetation destruction?

The vegetation in karst areas is dominated by shrubs, shrubs and grasslands, and the soil layer is not thick. Damaged vegetation will lead to serious soil erosion, water and soil loss, and a large area of exposed bedrock, causing a serious ecological problem of rocky desertification. Rocky desertification is almost the most serious ecological problem in karst areas in China, called "cancer of the earth". Therefore, the ecological problem of rocky desertification in karst areas is most important for government, academia and society.

 

L64-65: what is “northern desertification”. You may know well about northern desertification, but readers may not know. You should introduce these terns when using for the first time.

Good comments. Desertification refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub humid arid areas caused by various factors including climate variability and human activities. According to your suggestion, we clarified it in the revision.

 

L111: “little detailed research”. What is that little detailed research? What this research says? You need to review them carefully.

Thanks a lot for this comments. At present, most studies are based on the vegetation coverage retrieved by remote sensing, and used the similar habitat method to evaluate and predict the potential ecological vegetation restoration. However, there is no study on using the vegetation coverage retrieved by remote sensing and the net primary productivity of vegetation to build a comprehensive ecological remote sensing index of vegetation to evaluate and predict the potential ecological vegetation restoration. Therefore, this study focus on the realization and prediction technology of potential ecological vegetation restoration in karst areas using the comprehensive ecological vegetation remote sensing index from the perspective of similar habitats.

 

L152: Could you also include the map of China along with the currently presented map of study area.

Good comments. We revised Fig. 1 according to your comments.

 

L 237-L260: Formula presented here are basic and simple one. I don’t think any additional value of presenting them in the form of equation. You can simply write what you used in the analysis such as linear correlation coefficient,  partial correlations coefficient, multiple correlation coefficient etc.

Thanks a lot for this comments. We deleted the equation of (2)-(6) and revised related text.

 

L297: “Results and analysis”. I am not convinced here for using the word “analysis”. I am not sure if this is the format of the journal, otherwise you should present your analysis in the methods section not in result section.

Thanks a lot for this comments. We revised “Results and analysis” to “Results”.

 

L311: “natural disasters”. What are those natural disasters? You should specify if there are. This is a very broad term.

Good comments. We agreed and added explanation. "Natural disasters" refer to drought disasters, freezing disasters, etc. Previous researches showed that meteorological disasters such as drought under climate change have caused a certain decline in forest coverage and forest quality, and the ecological functions of forest land such as soil water conservation have been influenced (Wang et al., 2012). For instance, in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009, the drought in Guangxi karst areas was serious (SPEI<1.5) (Chen et al., 2019). At the beginning of 2008, Guangxi suffered a serious low-temperature rain and snow freeze disaster, a large number of trees were damaged, and the ecological environment was seriously affected (Wang et al., 2008).

 

References：

Wang Jianbo,Wu Baihai, Zeng Yiyu（2012）.Forestry and Natural Disaster: Toward the Ecosystem-Based Approaches for Integrate Risk Management[J]. FORESTRY ECONOMICS,（11）：24-29.

CHEN Yanli,MENG Liangli,HUANG Xiaohan（2019）.Temporal and Spatial Distributions of Drought in Guangxi Karst Area During 1971 -2017 Based on Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index.Journal of Arid Meteorology，2019，37( 3) : 353-362.

Wang Zhuxiong,Yan Hongwei Mo Mo（2008）.Do a Good Job in Post- disaster Assessment Survey Scientific Organizations Reconstruction—Research Report on Forestry Restoration after Guangxi Zhuang Nature Reserve Disaster . Forestry economy, 4：21-24.

 

L318 – L319: Spelling mistake in the legend in figure 1 should be corrected. “inde”, I am not sure about this word but looks like it is “index”.

Sorry and we revised.

 

L323-324: some information is missing in Table 1. “Proportion/%” for 2015-2019?

Sorry for missing some information due to the too wide table. We revised.

L351-352: What is the meaning of T1, T2, T3 and T4 in figure 5 and figure 5. It must be clearly mentioned in the figure caption.

T1, T2, T3 and T4 represents for the averaged ecological vegetation quality index in 2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014 and 2015-2019. We clarified it in the revision.

 

Reviewer 4 Report

The author(s) of the manuscript” Realization and Prediction on Potential Ecological Restoration of Vegetation in Karst Areas” have provided useful information about Potential Ecological Restoration of Vegetation, however there are some other literature to add to the manuscript in order to enrich the quality and the authors should clearly state that why they have chosen the topic and the study region and its importance. Some other points as follows.
- Abstract is too long. The abstract needs restructuring omitting 1,2,3,…

 

-  Some of the keywords are not keyword.

-The methodology needs a graphical illustration such as a flowchart.

- Provide the date of the images downloaded from MODIS

- Conclusion needs some improvements. It is a repeating of results in its current format.

 

Author Response

The author(s) of the manuscript” Realization and Prediction on Potential Ecological Restoration of Vegetation in Karst Areas” have provided useful information about Potential Ecological Restoration of Vegetation, however there are some other literature to add to the manuscript in order to enrich the quality and the authors should clearly state that why they have chosen the topic and the study region and its importance. Some other points as follows.

- Abstract is too long. The abstract needs restructuring omitting 1,2,3,…

We agreed and revised the abstract.

 

-  Some of the keywords are not keyword.

We agreed and deleted some keywords.

 

-The methodology needs a graphical illustration such as a flowchart.

Good comments. We added a flowchart in methodology part in the revision.

 

- Provide the date of the images downloaded from MODIS

Thanks for the comments. We added the download time of MODIS data in the revision.

 

- Conclusion needs some improvements. It is a repeating of results in its current format.

 We agreed and revised the conclusion.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

No comments.

Reviewer 4 Report

The author has tried to improve the article. This article is printable