Defining Important Areas for Ecosystem Conservation in Qinghai Province under the Policy of Ecological Red Line

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors

The paper titled Defining Important Areas for Ecosystem Conservation in Qing-hai Province under the Policy of Ecological Red Line

it is interested title please there should be some comments to do before final publishing 

1-Abstract should be write more clear, in the first and second paragraph should be more clear about the area and significance of the study

2- introduction part should be revised in the first paragraph make it more clear 

3- add some new references about ecosystem 

4- in the conclusion part you should write in point to know the final result 

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Line 16: “We found that the important endangered species”, here you should indicate what kind of species. Are them mammals?

Line 35: “the environment is relatively fragile, and impacted” change into “the environment in this area is relatively fragile, which impacted”

Line 49: I think the authors should first introduce the red line policy of ecological protection.

Lines 56-60: Please re-write this sentence.

Line 62: “but it includes integrated management”, change into “but also includes integrated management”

Line 72: Literature citation is missing here.

Line 76: I don't think the introduction of this article is clear. At least the authors needs to elaborate on the use of different methods (biodiversity, soil, carbon) of other literature in the introduction section, not in Qinghai, but in other provinces or countries. This is important, and shows the reliability of the analysis by integrating many factors!

Line 96: Move “(Figure 1)” to Line 88, after “Qinghai province”.

Line 99: Please add the descriptions of the small figures (a and b) in the legend.

Line 108: Please add the descriptions of the small figures in the legend.

Line 115: I don't understand why to cite Figure 2 here? Actually, the authors did not discuss typical landscapes of Qinghai in this paragraph.

Line 116: Some of the data sources have no reference URL. This is important. Authors need to ensure reliable sources of the data.

Lines 120-121: What kinds of China Plants Database?

Lines 122-123: If Colored Atlas of Chinese Amphibians and Their Distribution and China’s Mammal Diversity and Geographic Distribution are two books, please write the title in italics.

Line 144: Change “Research method” into “Data analysis”.

Lines 168-172: How the authors did the standardization.

Line 174: Where you cite this table in your main text?

Line 176: “Species distribution model method”, is this a title or a sentence? And change “MaxENT” into “MaxEnt”.

Lines 196-197: How the authors said “Altitude, temperature, rainfall, and other factors are basically the same in different regions of Qinghai”?

Line 260: Are the results of ecosystem patterns from the analysis by the authors? Or just the original data from data source?

Line 288: Please add the descriptions of the small figures in the legend.

Line 396: I think the discussion section is very dull, and most of them repeat the results section. In addition, many sentences lack necessary references. For example, “Several studies showed ....”, “earlier research ...”, please cite the studies and research!

Lines 371 and others: The two worlds “biodiversity” and “biological diversity” are both used in the manuscript, please use only one!

Line 375: What kinds of species?

Lines 396-399: I don't understand what the author is trying to express in this paragraph? What does the author want to discuss here? Just two sentences here, without logic.

Line 396: Here, Lack references.

Line 405: Here, Lack references.

Lines 411-412: Here, Lack references.

Lines 412-414: Here, Lack references.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Abstract- The abstract should be rewritten. The writer needs to include the research issue, the purpose of the study. study methodology, study results/findings and implications/importance of this study  

Materials & Methods The methodology is well explained. The author also managed to detail the study area, data sources and importance evaluation classification of ecosystem service function  

Results- The results are well discussed and also supported by the relevant table and diagram  

Discussion Good discussion  

Conclusions-This article is good and it is recommended to be published in this journal. however, the author is asked to fix small mistakes like this, percentage (%) and also shorten the writing a little because 17 pages is quite long for a journal article

 

Thank You

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The work is interesting and relevant to the purposes of the special issue "Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Environmental Sustainability", but some aspects need to be reviewed. 

General comments

Paragraph numbering should be improved (e.g., Lines 144-145, 143, 176, etc.).

The aims of your work should be better defined in the Introduction section (e.g., in the line 75).

Many citations don't match the sentence (see some examples in specific comments); was the ordering program malfunctioning?

Considering the purposes of the special issue, and considering that in the Introduction section it is stated that the ecosystems of Qinghai are threatened by human activities and climate change, it would be appropriate to describe them. From this point of view, it would be interesting to understand the modality and intensity of the contribution of your work to these problems.

In the Introduction and/or in the Research area sections, it would be appropriate to better describe the Chinese red line policy in the study area (e.g., delimitation on the map or other); from this point of view, it would then be appropriate to better clarify the effective contribution of your work to this ecological policy (e.g., in the Conclusions section).

 

Specific comments

Lines 35-36: The citation number 1 is not relevant to the sentence; the cited work does not refer to the Qinghai environment.

Line 63: change “[11] (Cao et al., 2017) [11]” to [11].

Lines 70-72: The citation number 15 is not relevant to the sentence; the cited work does not refer to the red line in Qinghai.

Lines 74-75: The citation number 15 is not relevant to the sentence; the cited work does not refer to studies carried out in the Qinghai province.

Lines 97-98: In the Figure 1, the Land cover map should be removed as superfluous; it corresponds to figure 3. Also, the elevation legend should be placed in the Elevation map box. Finally, reduce the size of the General Map and increase the size of the Elevation Map.

Line 99: The figure doesn't just show altitude; improve the caption (E.g., Study area (Qinghai province, in red colour) and its Elevation map).

Line 104: 400 mm per year? Indicate the time unit.

Line 106: change “-5.1～9.0oC” to “-5.1～9.0°C”.

Lines 116-167: In the Data source section you refer to reptiles and amphibians, but in the Biodiversity - Research methods section, Reptiles are no mentioned. Then, in the Results and Discussion sections, even amphibians disappeared. Why? Clarify these aspects and/or report in the text only the organisms actually considered in the study.

Lines 119 – 124: Citations are needed.

Lines 124-125: “Altitude and vegetation type were obtained from … , IUCN Red List, Bird Life International”. Are you sure?

Line 132: What does "spatial resolution of 0.0083oC" mean? Better define the data unit.

Lines 138-139: Indicate the data scale.

Lines 149-150: The sentence doesn't sound right; reformulate.

Line 154: Repetition of the word "importance"; rephrase the sentence.

Line 162 and/or 165: The considered species should be listed here; if you think they are too many, you could list them in supplemental materials.

Lines 163-165: This sentence is a repetition of the above one.

Line 167: In my opinion, the distribution maps of the considered species should be reported in the work, for example as supplementary materials.

Line 176: Insert a space line above. Is “Species distribution model method” a new paragraph? (See the general comments about paragraph numbering).

Line 215: Change “soil loss formula USLE” to Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE).

Line 217: The citation 39 is not suitable; the USLE equation is not explained in the cited work. Change to a more relevant citation; in such cases it would be better to refer to the original author of the formula.

Line 225: the citation 40 is not suitable; the water balance equation is not explained in the cited work. Change to a more relevant citation; in such cases it would be better to cite the original author of the formula.

Lines 239-258: In this paragraph the ecosystems taken into consideration should be listed.

Line 267: In the legend of figure 3 the category “Other” is reported; considering the large extent of this category in the map, it should be good to explain what it includes

Line 284: Add a spacing line above.

Lines 324-325: change “sequestration 324 (c) capacity” to sequestration capacity (c). At the end of the sentence add a dot.

Line 326: Add a spacing line.

Lines 363-368: These sentences should be reformulated to better understand the contribution of the province of Qinghai to nature conservation (species + ecosystem services) and the contribution of your research.

Lines 385-387: The sentence doesn't sound right; reformulate.

Lines 396-397: Citations are needed.

Lines 396-399: These sentences should be moved above (e.g., starting from line 387).

Lines 371-399: The discussion part on the considered amphibian species is missing (see comment Lines 116-167).

Lines 405-406: About “earlier research”, citations are needed.

Line 424: About “earlier research”, citations are needed.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I think this version is beter, but also have some small problems.

Line 131: What kind of “China Plants Database”, please cite.

Lines 132-133: These two resources should be cited.

Lines 178-179: re-write this sentence. Should like this, MaxEnt is a a well-known species distribution model based on Maximum Entrophy, which is able to .....

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx