A New Coupled Elimination Method of Soil Moisture and Particle Size Interferences on Predicting Soil Total Nitrogen Concentration through Discrete NIR Spectral Band Data
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This paper is focused on the elimination method of soil moisture and particle size interferences on prediction soil total nitrogen concentration using NIR spectroscopy. This is a new approach and is considered to be an important study to measure the nitrogen content of soil in real time. Overall, this paper is very well written. In particular, the design of the experiment and the results were very well written. However, I think it is necessary for the author to consider some aspect for the completeness of the paper.
- The spectrum of NIR varies depending on the moisture content and soil particle size. Therefore, there is a need for a pre-processing method to correct this. The author proposed a new method for this. But readers don't know why the author proposed this method. For example, there are MSC and classification methods for the pretreatment of the NIR spectrum to eliminate the interference of moisture contents of soil. Thus, the author needs to explain the reason for suggesting the new method.
- It is necessary to add details about the light source and detector of the on-the-go type NIR system.
- The final result of this paper is shown in Table 3. In Table 3, the coupled elimination method of soil moisture and particle size interferences on prediction soil total nitrogen concentration using NIR spectroscopy shows the best predictive performance. However, the authors need to discuss how good this performance is compared to other methods. Therefore, it is necessary for the author to explain the validity of the results of this study using the results of other references.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your sincere help, we appreciate it. Please see the attachement.
Sincerely,
Peng Zhou; Wei Yang; Minzan Li; Weichao Wang
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors proposed a new coupled elimination method of soil moisture and particle size interferences on predicting total soil nitrogen concentration through discrete NIR spectral band data and evaluated its performance. The topic is relevant and the developed method has potetial. At this stage, however, I can only recommend the manuscript for a major revision due to the problem in the structure of the manuscript and the validity of the proposed work. For detailed comments, please see below.
Lines 16-17, not a complete sentence.
Line 25, what’s Np?
Some interesting qualitative results should be included in the abstract.
Lines 185-186, the coordinate format is not commonly used in the journal, please check and correct.
Figure 3, improve the resolution. Also, explain the subfigures in the figure caption. This applies to other figures as well.
There is really no methods section in the manuscript. Basically, the descriptions of proposed method development were mixed with the results section. These method development sections should be separated and presented in the method section.
Have you considered the machine learning approaches mentioned in the introduction to further improve the final TN prediction accuracy?
It would be interesting to see a comparison of your proposed methods to other similar
Field vehicles are still limited in terms of coving large fields in a short time. It would be great to see the applicability of the proposed methods using hyperspectral cameras mounted on the UAVs. Therefore, it would good to include a discussion section along with this topic, which would be the interest of the broader remote sensing community.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your sincere help, we really appreciate it. Please see the attachment.
Sincerely,
Peng Zhou; Wei Yang; Minzan Li, Weichao Wang
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The current study proposes a novel approach concerning coupled elimination of soil moisture and particle size interferences for the prediction of TN content with the help of NIR spectral band data in order to improve the measurement accuracy of soil parameters.
The presentation and scientific description of the study are both provided in detail. The models performances have been presented and contrasted.
The presented work is regarded quite interesting and is encouraged for further publication, yet minor revision is suggested based on the following comments.
Lines 74-77 Please elaborate more, enriching the paragraph with more information about these limiting factors or analyze more the reference you have already mentioned so as to help the reader have a fuller view.
Lines 512-513 Please reform the sentence so as not to refer to the introduction section.
Line 527 The authors are suggested to reform the sentence.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your sincere help, we appreciate it. Please see the attachment.
Sincerely,
Peng Zhou; Wei Yang; Minzan Li; Weichao Wang
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
The start of the Introduction section was poorly written. The gap and the objective were poorly stated and the transition was missing. All the section needs to be revised thoroughly.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
First, thank you very much for your helpful comments and advice, which will greatly improve the quality of this paper. According to your comments and advice, we have revised the manuscript, we thought the manuscript shoule be improved.
Please see the attachment.
Sincerely,
Peng Zhou; Wei Yang; Minzan Li; Weichao Wang
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors addressed my comments reasonably well. The manuscript can move forward.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your sincere help. We really appreciate it.
SIncerely,
Peng Zhou, Wei Yang, Minzan Li, Weichao Wang
Reviewer 4 Report
I can still feel the Introduction was not improved The Introductory sentence needs to be improved. There are so many places where the researcher did not answer why this method was used?
The specific comments:
Line 35: Still need to work on the introductory sentence.
Line 78:
Not on soil parameter, soil moisture had an effect on curing rate and herbaceous fuel moisture, the effect on the Co2 response, biomass estimation. There are so many advantages of using soil moisture in the studies.
Please add this relevant reference here.
Line 133: Figure of study area is missing
Line 291-292: Why??
Line 299: Why the researcher want to eliminate the effect of soil moisture? I did not get that.
Its missing some of the specific questions is why the effect of soil moisture was not taken into consideration? It's just the opposite of the title.
I still felt the author need to work on the results and Introductory sentence. So it needs major revision before it gets published.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for your careful review of our manuscript. We have revised it based on your indications. We really appreciate your sincere help.
Sincerely,
Peng Zhou, Wei Yang, Minzan Li, Weichao Wang
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
