The Costs of Soil Erosion to Crop Production in Canada between 1971 and 2015

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

1- Abstract

The problem or issue is stated too lengthy at the beginning. It is important to remember that the abstract is intended to convince the reader that the text is worth reading.

I would suggest including the theoretical and practical contribution in the abstract of the work.

 

2- Introduction

Line 31 - Please don't use too many references.  (6 articles) …are threatened by soil erosion [2–7].

Line 33 - Do not use more than 3 references per sentence. [8–11].

Line 36 - Please avoid reference overkill. (7 articles) …degrading the soil’s ability to produce crops [12–18].

 

It is advised that the authors provide an overview of the article's overall structure in the last paragraph.

 

Line 45 – “With respect to public awareness, government support through policies, programs and research, and industry action, there has been a steady decline in interest in soil conservation.”

I'd advise you to thoroughly cite all of your sources in order to recognise the findings and provide evidence in support of your research statement. Based on the study area's keywords, you can construct a table of previous findings (in the literature section). For example, the Scopus database's search string revealed 1080 and 890 Canadian documents on the topics of "soil erosion" and "soil conservation," respectively. Furthermore, it doesn't appear that interest in the research topics is declining.

 

Search string - soil erosion

1971 – 0 document

1981 – 4 documents

1991 – 12 documents

2001 – 19 documents

2011 – 47 documents

2021 – 59 documents

Search string - soil conservation

1971 – 0 document

1981 – 1 document

1991 – 1 document

2001 – 7 documents

2011 – 28 documents

2021 – 62 documents

Author Response

The problem or issue is stated too lengthy at the beginning. It is important to remember that the abstract is intended to convince the reader that the text is worth reading.

I would suggest including the theoretical and practical contribution in the abstract of the work.

• We agree with the reviewer; the abstract was shortened and modified by removing the lengthy beginning

2- Introduction

Line 31 - Please don't use too many references.  (6 articles) …are threatened by soil erosion [2–7].

• The extra references were removed according to this comment.

Line 33 - Do not use more than 3 references per sentence. [8–11].

• Sometimes it is good to provide more agreement on a certain statement from different years and various locations.

Line 36 - Please avoid reference overkill. (7 articles) …degrading the soil’s ability to produce crops [12–18].

• We agree with the reviewer; we deleted more references.

It is advised that the authors provide an overview of the article's overall structure in the last paragraph.

• We agree with the reviewer; providing an overall structure to our manuscript is important. However, it has been provided between lines 91 and 103

 

Line 45 – “With respect to public awareness, government support through policies, programs and research, and industry action, there has been a steady decline in interest in soil conservation.”

I'd advise you to thoroughly cite all of your sources in order to recognise the findings and provide evidence in support of your research statement. Based on the study area's keywords, you can construct a table of previous findings (in the literature section). For example, the Scopus database's search string revealed 1080 and 890 Canadian documents on the topics of "soil erosion" and "soil conservation," respectively. Furthermore, it doesn't appear that interest in the research topics is declining.

 Search string - soil erosion

1971 – 0 document

1981 – 4 documents

1991 – 12 documents

2001 – 19 documents

2011 – 47 documents

2021 – 59 documents

Search string - soil conservation

1971 – 0 document

1981 – 1 document

1991 – 1 document

2001 – 7 documents

2011 – 28 documents

2021 – 62 documents

• We disagree with the reviewer on this point; the number of publications doesn’t reflect the public interest in the matter of discussion; soil conservation programs were terminated a long time ago by changing governments, which made policy-makers put soil erosion and conservation in place a less priority list.

 

• We would like to thank the reviewer for his/her time and genuine concern.

 

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

The paper after the revision was improved and include all standards for scientific papers. 

Author Response

We would like to thank the reviewer for their support

Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)

This paper studied the impacts of soil erosion on crop production in Canada between 1971 and 2015. This study has great implications for building sustainable agricultural systems and provided insights into how soil degradation reduces land production ability considering the temporal effect. Please revise the manuscript according to the following detailed comments:

In the abstract, there is very limited information on the quantitative method used in this study and how the effects are calculated or studied.

Line 40-42: this sentence is wired. Please check.

Line 182: section 3.1?

Line 334: section 3.2?

In the discussion section, there is a lack of introduction on the future directions and what new sensing technology and statistical/ simulation models are available to enable considering the spatial effects and bring another layer to this study. There are some new references that have simulated land degradation and soc dynamics across a large spatial scale or have provided newly developed technologies and computational algorithms or sensing technologies to generate accurate spatial dense datasets of soil erosion-related physical and chemical properties.

Zhao, D., Wang, J., Zhao, X., & Triantafilis, J. (2022). Clay content mapping and uncertainty estimation using weighted model averaging. Catena, 209, 105791.

Ma, Y., Minasny, B., Viaud, V., Walter, C., Malone, B., & McBratney, A. (2023). Modelling the Whole Profile Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics Considering Soil Redistribution under Future Climate Change and Landscape Projections over the Lower Hunter Valley, Australia. Land, 12(1), 255.

Zhao, D., Eyre, J. X., Wilkus, E., de Voil, P., Broad, I., & Rodriguez, D. (2022). 3D characterization of crop water use and the rooting system in field agronomic research. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 202, 107409.

Author Response

This paper studied the impacts of soil erosion on crop production in Canada between 1971 and 2015. This study has great implications for building sustainable agricultural systems and provided insights into how soil degradation reduces land production ability considering the temporal effect. Please revise the manuscript according to the following detailed comments:

In the abstract, there is very limited information on the quantitative method used in this study and how the effects are calculated or studied.

• We agree with the reviewer; a sentence was added to provide more information on our quantitative methodology with the 250 words limit in the abstract section.

Line 40-42: this sentence is wired. Please check.

• We modified the sentence slightly to ease comprehension; please check lines 39-42

 

Line 182: section 3.1?

Line 334: section 3.2?

• We thank the reviewer; it has been fixed.

 

In the discussion section, there is a lack of introduction on the future directions and what new sensing technology and statistical/ simulation models are available to enable considering the spatial effects and bring another layer to this study. There are some new references that have simulated land degradation and soc dynamics across a large spatial scale or have provided newly developed technologies and computational algorithms or sensing technologies to generate accurate spatial dense datasets of soil erosion-related physical and chemical properties.

Zhao, D., Wang, J., Zhao, X., & Triantafilis, J. (2022). Clay content mapping and uncertainty estimation using weighted model averaging. Catena, 209, 105791.

Ma, Y., Minasny, B., Viaud, V., Walter, C., Malone, B., & McBratney, A. (2023). Modelling the Whole Profile Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics Considering Soil Redistribution under Future Climate Change and Landscape Projections over the Lower Hunter Valley, Australia. Land, 12(1), 255.

Zhao, D., Eyre, J. X., Wilkus, E., de Voil, P., Broad, I., & Rodriguez, D. (2022). 3D characterization of crop water use and the rooting system in field agronomic research. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 202, 107409.

• We thank the reviewer for his suggestion, which has been taken into consideration; the recommended references were added with an updated sentence.   

Reviewer 4 Report (New Reviewer)

Review Report on the Manuscript Number: sustainability-2215576 Title: The Costs of Soil Erosion to Crop Production in Canada between 1971 and 2015        

The manuscript investigates the effect of soil erosion on Canadian crop production, which was assessed based on the integration between soil erosion analysis and multitemporal crop market values from 1971 to 2015. Generally, the manuscript is well written and the topic seems to be appropriate for the journal of Sustainability. However, this manuscript must be revised before of be considered for publication. In the following, I suggest some possible improvements.

1.      Please write accurate keywords. Like the Soil erosion and Land degradation, just general keywords which are common.

2.      The Abstract is a little confusing for readers. The methods used in this study should be presented together.

3.      Line 33-36, It would be good to write more about adverse effects of soil erosion on crop production and categorize them according to your study goals. Please read and add these references as follows:

Abdulle YA, Hussein MF, Mohamed AM, Mohamud AH, Osman AFI, Mohamuud BA, Idiris FH. Effects of Soil Erosion on Crop Productivity in Afgoye, Lower Shabelle-Somalia. International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences. 12 (2022): 115-122.

Misagh Parhizkar , Mahmood Shabanpour, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja , Demetrio Antonio Zema, Siyue Li, Nobuaki Tanaka, Artemio Cerd. Effects of length and application rate of rice straw mulch on surface runoff and soil loss under laboratory simulated rainfall. International Journal of Sediment Research 36 (2021) 468e478.

Pimentel, D.; Burgess, M. Soil Erosion Threatens Food Production. Agriculture 2013, 3, 443-463.

Assessment of Soil Erosion and Its Impact on Agricultural Productivity by Using the RMMF Model and Local Perception: A Case Study of Rangun Watershed of Mid-Hills, Nepal. Dinesh Bhandari…… Applied and Environmental Soil Science. Volume 2021, Article ID 5747138, 10 pages.

4.      Line 156, There is no need for Figure 12 in Discussion section. Please remove this Figure or move it to the results section.

5.      Line 355 to 356, In the past 44 years, the oilseeds crop commodity has lost 13.68 BCAD$, which is 40.82% of the total loss. This rate is very high. What is the logical reason for this loss?

6.      Line 407 to 412, this paragraph presents interesting results, you could explore and discuss these results further.

7.      Line 425-433, it would be better if you could report the actual and comparable results, so that your readers can see similar findings, if the experimental conditions were comparable to your study.

8.      Please explain relation and extension of results obtained from the study to natural conditions in larger scales (scaling).

9.      What is your prediction of the soil erosion and costs in the future in Canada?

10.  It would be good to add some appropriate operations for soil conservation in Canada at the end of Discussion section.

 

Author Response

The manuscript investigates the effect of soil erosion on Canadian crop production, which was assessed based on the integration between soil erosion analysis and multitemporal crop market values from 1971 to 2015. Generally, the manuscript is well written and the topic seems to be appropriate for the journal of Sustainability. However, this manuscript must be revised before of be considered for publication. In the following, I suggest some possible improvements.

1. Please write accurate keywords. Like the Soil erosion and Land degradation, just general keywords which are common.

• We agree with the reviewer; we replaced Land degradation with Agricultural valorization.

 

2. The Abstract is a little confusing for readers. The methods used in this study should be presented together.

• We have changed some sections in the abstract to enhance comprehension and readability

 

3. Line 33-36, It would be good to write more about adverse effects of soil erosion on crop production and categorize them according to your study goals. Please read and add these references as follows:

Abdulle YA, Hussein MF, Mohamed AM, Mohamud AH, Osman AFI, Mohamuud BA, Idiris FH. Effects of Soil Erosion on Crop Productivity in Afgoye, Lower Shabelle-Somalia. International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences. 12 (2022): 115-122.

Misagh Parhizkar , Mahmood Shabanpour, Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja , Demetrio Antonio Zema, Siyue Li, Nobuaki Tanaka, Artemio Cerd. Effects of length and application rate of rice straw mulch on surface runoff and soil loss under laboratory simulated rainfall. International Journal of Sediment Research 36 (2021) 468e478.

Pimentel, D.; Burgess, M. Soil Erosion Threatens Food Production. Agriculture 2013, 3, 443-463.

Assessment of Soil Erosion and Its Impact on Agricultural Productivity by Using the RMMF Model and Local Perception: A Case Study of Rangun Watershed of Mid-Hills, Nepal. Dinesh Bhandari…… Applied and Environmental Soil Science. Volume 2021, Article ID 5747138, 10 pages.

• We thank the reviewer for his/her suggestion. However, other reviewers have advised us to focus more on the costs of soil erosion in addition to decreasing the number of references to 3 citations per statement.

 

4. Line 156, There is no need for Figure 12 in Discussion section. Please remove this Figure or move it to the results section.

 

• We believe the reviewer meant line 421. However, Figure 12 is an essential part of our paper; it concludes all results and explains the time-series trend of the national soil erosion costs in Canadian agriculture between 2971 to 2015. We think figure 12 would serve our readers well.

 

5. Line 355 to 356, In the past 44 years, the oilseeds crop commodity has lost 13.68 BCAD$, which is 40.82% of the total loss. This rate is very high. What is the logical reason for this loss?

• We thank the reviewer for this observation; It's also important to note that the percentage of loss mentioned in your question, 40.82%, is a significant decline and may be due to a combination of factors. 1) agriculture practices that encourage more soil erosion events, 2) the more cultivated areas, the more crop loss, 3) oilseeds contain many crops such as flaxseed, canola (rapeseed), Soybeans, sunflower, and 4) oilseeds susceptibility to loss because of soil erosion.

6. Line 407 to 412, this paragraph presents interesting results; you could explore and discuss these results further.

• We thank the reviewer for this comment; we added more discussion in this section between 407 and 420

7. Line 425-433, it would be better if you could report the actual and comparable results, so that your readers can see similar findings, if the experimental conditions were comparable to your study.

• We thank the reviewer for this comment; we are afraid that elaborating more on this would distract our readers from the main scope of this paper, which is the impact of soil erosion on Canadian crop production.

8. Please explain relation and extension of results obtained from the study to natural conditions in larger scales (scaling).

• We thank the reviewer for this comment; this research is data-driven modeling in one of the largest scales (Canada); the main drivers are how soil erosion impacts crop productivity in different years (1971-2015), different provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, etc.), and different crops (oilseeds, pulse, potato, etc.); We believe that going for more extension in this research to assess natural conditions will require adding many pages and will alter the objectives of this particular paper and research.

 

9. What is your prediction of the soil erosion and costs in the future in Canada?

 

• We thank the reviewer for this comment; it is certain we’re above $2 billion CAD annually, and adding the current global inflation would make the annual national soil erosion costs more than $2.5 billion CAD.

 

10. It would be good to add some appropriate operations for soil conservation in Canada at the end of Discussion section.

• We thank the reviewer for this comment; We added a new part at the end of the discussion section between lines 441 - 447

 

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)

I think authors have well addressed all my concerns.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Why did the authors choose to present their research, which was completed seven years ago and not in the most recent years? Because it has been more than 7 years, or one era, according to the research findings, the research's time frame is too out of date. Additionally, the literature review is insufficiently addressed. This is unquestionably the most significant section of the study since authors analysed the impact of soil erosion on the agricultural economy of Canada.

Line 19– Ear or era? Four eras were found in this research, and each ear has unique soil erosion costs, which…

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic of the article is interesting in the current time because The Costs of Soil Erosion related to Crop Production are important for the multifunctional evaluation of the sustainability of agriculture and soil fertility, as well.

The following paragraph could be improved:

Line 90-95

Several studies, such as Battiston et al. (1987) [9], have found a strong relationship between crop yield and soil organic matter. Crop yield is a function of topsoil depth, which is the depth of carbonates (not only – also available nutrients, and water …) and soil organic carbon (SOC) content. These factors affect soil moisture content and soil fertility.

 

Line 114-123

There are comments on the relationship between soil loss and the amount of SOC … but where are “soil organic carbon” data. Is it any study with measured data?

SOC is important parameter, but not only this. There are also other factor which influence soil fertility … yield level …

Part in “Results”

1.3. Crop production and values between 1971 – 2015

How the yield of crops was affected by changes in varieties, fertilisation, soil tillage systems, crop protection …,  in general if crop management practice could influence production. Do you have any data, which could describe this facts?

Line 197

ponentially change to potentially

 

References

There are only 9 articles that are cited. I recommend adding some others, especially some newer ones.