Patterns, Dynamics, and Drivers of Soil Available Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Alpine Grasslands across the QingZang Plateau
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Editor in Chief of Remote sensing
As the reviewer of the manuscript entitled as ‘Patterns, dynamics, and drivers of soil available nitrogen and phosphorus in alpine grasslands across the QingZang Platea I went through the manuscript and found that it has merits to publish in an international Journal. It suffers from minor shortcomings that I have highlighted on the attached PDF manuscript file. In overall, I am recommending for publication after minor revision. Moreover, I am strongly suggesting to be improved linguistically and grammatically by a native in English.
Sincerely Yours .
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The research is clearly presented. Methodology is adequate to ensure the conclusion of the causes of SAN and SAP soil content increments found by the authors.
Only few minor changes are required, for exmaple: Statement at lines 16-18 needs to be rephrased.
1. What is the main question addressed by the research?
The measure historical contents of soil available nitrogen and phosphorous (SAN and SAP) throughout continental China.
2. Do you consider the topic original or relevant in the field? Does it address a specific gap in the field?
Yes, as they a found large increments of SAN and SAP concentrations from 1980's to 2015.
3. What does it add to the subject area compared with other published material?
There are few studies about SAN and SAP dynamics at large scale areas.
4. What specific improvements should the authors consider regarding the methodology?
What further controls should be considered? I think the methodology is correct. Further controls implementations could take months or years to implement, and so, they would result rather in a new research.
5. Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments presented and do they address the main question posed?
I think conclusions are consistent with evidence as they are supported by the global spatial autocorrelation index, and also by local multicollinearity analysis.
6. Are the references appropriate?
References are pertinent.
7. Please include any additional comments on the tables and figures.
Figures are self explanatory and detailed in content and visual presentation.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This study mapped the soil available nitrogen (SAN) and soil available phosphorus (SAP) at soil depth of 0-30cm in alpine grasslands across the QingZang Plateau in the 1980s and 2015 via a machine learning approach. The results of this study may contribute to further learn the patterns and dynamics of soil available nutrients across the QingZang Plateau. However, there are some concerns that the authors should address before it can be considered for publication.
(1) In the study area, I suggest the authors add some recent references to back "The QZP is characterized by extreme climate and harsh environment (e.g., Sun et al., 2021; Shen et al., 2022)". The authors should add more information about the climate of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, such as the average annual temperature and precipitation, etc.
(2) The SAN and SAP showed obvious spatial difference in the study which can be confirmed by Figures 2, 4, and 8. However, the authors did not try to account for these spatial differences. To ensure the quality of the article, the authors should further explain the spatial differences of SAN and SAP results.
(3) In order to further highlight the innovation of this article, it is better to further compare the results of this study with other studies and highlight their innovative findings. Line 365, "There are some differences between our results and others, and it is mainly caused by the differences in sampling time and loctions". The authors have made some comparisons with other studies but do not introduce detailed information.
(4) In the uncertainties and limitations, I suggest the authors add the discussion that the uncertainty of remote sensing vegetation map (Zhao et al., 2020) may affect the research results, especially considering that the vegetation map in 2000 cannot actually reflect the accurate vegetation distribution in 1980s and 2015.
(5) The values in Figure 2 should be clarified. The legends on the right of Figure 4 are confusing.
References:
Effects of the interaction among climate, terrain and human activities on biodiversity on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Science of the Total Environment, 2021, 794: 148497.
Asymmetric impacts of diurnal warming on vegetation carbon sequestration of marshes in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2022, 36: e2022GB007396.
Accuracy assessment of the global forest watch tree cover 2000 in China. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 2020, 87: 102033.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Your work is very interesting and and incorporated so many approaches but it needs proof reading for grammer checkup
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
No further comments.
