Dynamic Vegetation Responses to Climate and Land Use Changes over the Inner Mongolia Reach of the Yellow River Basin, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this manuscript, the authors evaluate the association between the kernel normalized difference vegetation index (kNDVI) and changes in temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and LULC, based on an explainable machine learning technique and SHapley additive interpretation (SHAP), as well as the associated marginal contribution of these four drivers to observed vegetation changes. The structure and ideas of this manuscript are clear, but there are still some improprieties that need to be improved.

1.      This manuscript focuses on the response of vegetation change to climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, while in the introduction section the authors mainly review the effects of human activities on vegetation change and less on the effects of climate change on vegetation.

2.      Lines 52-55 and 65-67 lack a logical relationship between the sentences before and after, and such a presentation is confusing.

3.      Lines 158-159, grassland is the dominant landscape in the study area, but can grassland alone be used to quantify the change in LULC? I think it is inappropriate and does not take into account the actual situation of the woodland and farmland distribution areas.

4.      The expressions in lines 457-459 are somewhat obscure and difficult to understand.

There is a lack of logic between the preceding and following statements in various places, which needs further improvement. For example, Lines 52-55 and 65-67.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have presented a novel approach for climate and land cover changes in the area of China.

1. The authors have compared the methods with the existing metric and compared with the other techniques

2. Introduction part may be improved further for the readers

3. The comparative analysis between the techniques to be visualized

4. Conclusion may be summarized

5. In 2.2, data should start with upper case D

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Attached 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx