Effects of Dynamic Changes of Soil Moisture and Salinity on Plant Community in the Bosten Lake Basin
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is interesting since presents the dynamic changes in the plant community and species diversity affected by soil moisture and salinity in 21 years using remote sensing technology and field data. In addition, a model for expressing soil moisture, salinity, and the properties of the plant communities was proposed.
The paper was well carried out and generally well presented, but some comments and suggestions are necessary, which are inserted directly into the manuscript attached to the Journal system.
English language and style need to be improved by a native English speaker, for a better understanding of what is written.
The manuscript is suitable for publication after major revisions and adjustments which are pointed out at the manuscript revised file (see attached at the system).
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear reviewer:
Thanks for your helpful advice and we reivise the article acorrding to you adivice. revised file submit as attachment. We revise English language and style in the article.
best regards.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This study analyzed the dynamic changes in the plant community and species diversity affected by soil moisture and salinity of the Bosten Lake Basin in 2000–2020 using remote sensing technology and field experiments. The results of this study may contribute to estimate the potential risks of plant diversity reduction and soil salinization. However, there are some concerns that the authors should address before it can be considered for publication.
(1) I suggest the authors add more relevant studies in the introduction.
(2) Line 57-59, "Furthermore, there are few studies on the relationship between soil moisture, …… However, few studies focus on changes". The two sentences both express the meaning of turning. I suggest the authors rephrase it and check the whole article.
(3) In the data, I suggest that authors add more information about data, such as data availability and access.
(4) More mechanism explanations should be added to further explain the dynamic changes in the plant community and species diversity.
(5) I suggest add some recent studies to back "Previous studies have demonstrated that plant community productivity has generally improved, and that changes in the microclimate affect the distribution of plant communities and reflect the overall improvement of the regional environment (e.g, Kemppinen et al., 2021; Shen et al., 2021) ".
(6) In order to further highlight the innovation of this article, it is better to compare the results of this study with other studies.
(7) A paragraph of limitation discussion should be added to clarify the limitation or uncertainty of data and methods in this current study. For example, the uncertainty of remote sensing data (Decuyper et al., 2020; Shen et al., 2022) may affect the research results.
References:
Consistent trait–environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2021, 5, 458-467.
Aboveground biomass and its spatial distribution pattern of herbaceous marsh vegetation in China. Science China Earth Sciences, 2021, 64, 1115-1125.
Spatio-temporal assessment of beech growth in relation to climate extremes in Slovenia–An integrated approach using remote sensing and tree-ring data. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 2020, 287, 107925.
Effect of shrub encroachment on land surface temperature in semi-arid areas of temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 2022, 320, 108943.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you give some helpful advices and improve my ariticle. Acorrding to your adivice, we revised point by point. The revised file insert in attachment.
Best regards
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors made all the suggested modifications.
Therefore, I recommend publishing the manuscript in this journal.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thanks for your helping and recommending the manuscript . According to adivice, we also checked and revised some english spell and style.
Reviewer 2 Report
No further comments.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thanks for your adivices and comments.We also checked the language and style and checked some mistaken spell.
Best regards for you.
Jia wen Hou & Mao Ye
