Grassland Ecosystem Progress: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis Based on Research Publication over the Last Three Decades

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. The authors need to add summarizing tables of the grassland ecosystem parameters studied in the articles for all three categories identified by the authors. This will significantly raise the level of the article and arouse greater reader interest.

In my opinion, without these tables, this article is ill-suited for Agronomy, but if they are added, this article will be useful for readers of Agronomy.
The authors should add which of the scientists studies which parameters depending on the selected category, and compare these parameters.

 

2.  The authors should improve figures 3 - 5, as these figures are extremely inconvenient for perception.

Author Response

1. The authors need to add summarizing tables of the grassland ecosystem parameters studied in the articles for all three categories identified by the authors. This will significantly raise the level of the article and arouse greater reader interest.

In my opinion, without these tables, this article is ill-suited for Agronomy, but if they are added, this article will be useful for readers of Agronomy.
The authors should add which of the scientists studies which parameters depending on the selected category, and compare these parameters.

Responses：Thanks for bringing up these potential issues in summarizing the grassland ecosystem. To address parameters for all three categories, we added a summarizing table (Lines 346-347) to explore the three categories and corresponding parameters targeting grassland ecosystem, with key references added to the manuscript.

The new table reads as：

Table 1. Three categories and corresponding parameters targeting grassland ecosystem.

Category	Content	Parameter	Reference
Grassland ecological characteristics	basic physicochemical property, vegetation community characteristics, soil structural quality of grassland	Vegetation index, Leaf Area Index (LAI), Normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), Enhanced vegetation index (EVI), Soil regulates vegetation index (SAVI), Modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI), Productivity, Net primary productivity (NPP), Net ecosystem productivity (NEP), aboveground biomass (AGB), Nitrogen nutrient index (NI), Soil texture, Soil carbon, Nitrogen cycle of grassland, Vegetation coverage	[6] [26] [29] [48] [54] [91-96] [97] [98] [99] [109] [112]
Driving mechanism	effects of human activities (grazing, grassland reclamation and mineral exploitation) and climate change on grassland ecosystem function	Population (Population density, Urbanization rate); Economic (GDP, Primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, Distance to town center); Climate (Precipitation, Temperature, Relative humidity, Solar radiation, Air pressure, Wind speed)	[5-6] [13-15] [53-57]
Grassland ecosystem service	the influences of different grassland management strategies on ecological services, animals’ welfare, and human well-beings	Organic matter production, Nutrient conservation, Soil conservation, Carbon fixation and oxygen release, Water conservation	[2] [14] [25-28] [36] [75] [91-96] [97] [98] [99]

 

2. The authors should improve figures 3 - 5, as these figures are extremely inconvenient for perception.

Responses：We very appreciate your suggestion. We have redrawn Figures 3-5 (Lines 140-141, Lines 156-159, Lines 180-184) to make them much clearer and more convenient for perception.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear,

 

A deep analysis is made on a review and bibliometric analysis based on research publication over the last three decades on grasslands. Although the subject of the article is related to the subjects published in the journal, and despite the article being well written and well founded, I believe that this journal is not the most suitable for its publication. This is a bibliographic review on a specific surface coverage, it would be more appropriate to submit it to journals that deal with publication metrics in journals in the area.

 

Best Wishes.

Author Response

A deep analysis is made on a review and bibliometric analysis based on research publication over the last three decades on grasslands. Although the subject of the article is related to the subjects published in the journal, and despite the article being well written and well founded, I believe that this journal is not the most suitable for its publication. This is a bibliographic review on a specific surface coverage, it would be more appropriate to submit it to journals that deal with publication metrics in journals in the area.

Responses: We very appreciate your suggestion. The reason why we choose Agronomy Journal is that our research fit the Special Issue "Modeling and Monitoring of Grassland Ecosystem Productivity, Carbon Assimilation and Allocation" in this journal, and this review and bibliometric analysis about grassland ecology, to a certain extent, can straightened out and summarize the research content and progress, which can better present the results of the special issue. In addition, the subject areas of Agronomy include Grassland and pasture improvement and agronomy area, and this article named Grassland ecosystem progress: A review and bibliometric analysis based on research publication over the last three decades is consistent with the domain of the Agronomy Journal.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Line 180. There are 4 images A - D in the figure. There are 3 images A - C in the description of the drawing. Incorrect description.

 

Line 199-200. In Appendix A, please provide a list of 30-50 references on the topics discussed.

 

Line 220-228. In Annexes C, D, E and F, list the most important items for each cluster.

Author Response

Line 180. There are 4 images A - D in the figure. There are 3 images A - C in the description of the drawing. Incorrect description.

Responses: We very appreciate your suggestion. We have revised the number and corresponding description. The texts were revised to: “Subfigure (A) showed keywords occurrences from 1990 to 2021; Subfigure (B) showed keywords occurrences from 1990 to 2005; Subfigure (C) showed keywords occurrences from 2006 to 2015; Subfigure (D) showed keywords occurrences from 2016 to 2021.” (Lines 181-184).

 

Line 199-200. In Appendix A, please provide a list of 30-50 references on the topics discussed.

Responses: We very appreciate your suggestion. We have reviewed and added the references in Lines 198-202, and discussed the topics in the section 4. Discussion - 4.1. Three perspectives in the grassland ecosystem with a large number of references.

The texts were revised to: “In addition, the increasing frequency of keywords in the past five years, such as decomposition [21, 60, 92, 101], functional diversity [4-5, 111-112, 116], degradation [3, 16, 43, 55, 103-105, 108], agriculture [19, 29, 32, 72, 96], forests [24, 33-35, 74,], remote sensing [8, 89, 98] also showed the importance of studying grassland degradation and intercropping study of agriculture and animal husbandry combined with forest and grass.” (Lines 196-200).

The adding references listed as below.

3. Bardgett, R.D., J.M. Bullock, S. Lavorel, et al. Combatting global grassland degradation. Nature Reviews. Earth & Environment, 2021. 2(10): 720-735.
4. Grange, G., J.A. Finn, and C. Brophy. Plant diversity enhanced yield and mitigated drought impacts in intensively managed grassland communities. The Journal of Applied Ecology, 2021. 58(9): 1864-1875.
5. He, M., Y. Pan, G. Zhou, et al. Grazing and global change factors differentially affect biodiversity‐ecosystem functioning relationships in grassland ecosystems. Global Change Biology, 2022. 28(18): 5492-5504.
6. Šálková, T., L. Vobejda, O. Chvojka, et al. Extensive archaeobotanical data estimate carrying capacity, duration, and land use of the Late Bronze Age settlement site Březnice (Czech Republic). Sci Rep, 2022. 12(1): 20323.
7. Mao, D., Z. Wang, B. Wu, et al. Land degradation and restoration in the arid and semiarid zones of China: Quantified evidence and implications from satellites. Land Degradation & Development, 2018. 29(11): 3841-3851.
8. Bryan, B.A., L. Gao, Y. Ye, et al. China's response to a national land-system sustainability emergency. Nature, 2018. 559(7713).
9. Li, T., L. Cui, L. Liu, et al. Characteristics of nitrogen deposition research within grassland ecosystems globally and its insight from grassland microbial community changes in China. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2022. 13: 947279.
10. Vieira, A.F., M. Moura, and L. Silva. Soil metagenomics in grasslands and forests: A review and bibliometric analysis. Applied Soil Ecology:A Section of Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2021. 167: 104047.
11. Aguilera, E., C. Reyes-Palomo, C. Díaz-Gaona, et al. Greenhouse gas emissions from Mediterranean agriculture: Evidence of unbalanced research efforts and knowledge gaps. Global Environmental Change, 2021. 69: 102319.
12. Pei, H., M. Liu, Y. Jia, et al. The trend of vegetation greening and its drivers in the Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, 2000–2020. Ecological Indicators, 2021. 129: 108004.
13. Li, H., X. Niu, B. Wang, et al. Coupled coordination of ecosystem services and landscape patterns: Take the Grain for Green Project in the Wuling Mountain Area as an example. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2020(13): 4316.
14. Cao, S., X. Suo, and C. Xia. Payoff from afforestation under the Three-North Shelter Forest Program. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020. 256: 120461.
15. Gao, H. and Y. Huang. Impacts of the Three-North shelter forest program on the main soil nutrients in Northern Shaanxi China: A meta-analysis. Forest Ecology and Management, 2020. 458: 117808.
16. Peng, F., X. Xue, C. Li, et al. Plant community of alpine steppe shows stronger association with soil properties than alpine meadow alongside degradation. Sci Total Environ, 2020. 733: 139048.
17. Zhao, C. z., S. y. Fan, and C. q. Yin. Causation of Degenerated Grassland and its Sustainable Development Countermeasures in Qilian Mountains of China. Journal of Desert Research, 2004. 24(2): 207-210.
18. Chen, X., B. Hao, X. Jing, et al. Minor responses of soil microbial biomass, community structure and enzyme activities to nitrogen and phosphorus addition in three grassland ecosystems. Plant Soil, 2019. 444(1-2): 21-37.
19. Tubiello, F.N., J. F. Soussana, and S.M. Howden. Crop and pasture response to climate change. PNAS. 2007. 104(50): 19686-19690.
20. Schweiger, A.K., J. Cavender-Bares, S. Kothari, et al. Coupling spectral and resource-use complementarity in experimental grassland and forest communities. 2021.
21. Wang, J., D.G. Brown, and Y. Bai. Investigating the spectral and ecological characteristics of grassland communities across an ecological gradient of the Inner Mongolian grasslands with in situ hyperspectral data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 2014. 35(20): 7179-7198.
22. Stampfli, A., J.M.G. Bloor, M. Fischer, et al. High land‐use intensity exacerbates shifts in grassland vegetation composition after severe experimental drought. Glob Chang Biol, 2018. 24(5): 2021-2034.
23. Wiesmeier, M., R. Hübner, F. Barthold, et al. Amount, distribution and driving factors of soil organic carbon and nitrogen in cropland and grassland soils of southeast Germany (Bavaria). Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2013. 176: 39-52.
24. Lehnert, L.W., H. Meyer, Y. Wang, et al. Retrieval of grassland plant coverage on the Tibetan Plateau based on a multi-scale, multi-sensor and multi-method approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, 2015. 164: 197-207.
25. Mommer, L., J. van Ruijven, H. de Caluwe, et al. Unveiling below-ground species abundance in a biodiversity experiment: A test of vertical niche differentiation among grassland species. The Journal of Ecology, 2010. 98(5): 1117-1127.
26. Lu, X., Y. Zhang, C. Lin, et al. Evolutionary overview and prediction of themes in the field of land degradation. Land (Basel), 2021. 10(3): 241.
27. Yao, Z., C. Zhao, K. Yang, et al. Alpine grassland degradation in the Qilian Mountains, China: A case study in damaying grassland. Catena (Giessen), 2016. 137: 494-500.
28. Li, A., J. Wu, X. Zhang, et al. China’s new rural “separating three property rights” land reform results in grassland degradation: Evidence from Inner Mongolia. Land Use Policy, 2018. 71: 170-182.
29. Shen, H., S. Dong, A. DiTommaso, et al. N deposition may accelerate grassland degradation succession from grasses- and sedges-dominated into forbs-dominated in overgrazed alpine grassland systems on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Ecological Indicators, 2021. 129: 107898.
30. Lituma, C. M., B. R. Buckley, P. D. Keyser, et al. Effects of patch-burn grazing and rotational grazing on grassland bird abundance, species richness, and diversity in native grassland pastures of the Midsouth USA. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2022. 324: 107710.
31. Moinardeau, C., F. Mesleard, H. Ramone, et al., Extensive horse grazing improves grassland vegetation diversity, seed bank and forage quality of artificial embankments (Rhone River-southern France) Influence of extensive horse grazing on artificial embankments. Journal for Nature Conservation, 2020. 56.
32. Zhang, R., D. Tian, H.Y.H. Chen, et al. Biodiversity alleviates the decrease of grassland multifunctionality under grazing disturbance: A global meta‐analysis. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2022. 31(1): 155-167.

 

Line 220-228. In Annexes C, D, E and F, list the most important items for each cluster.

Responses: We very appreciate your suggestion. We have revised the keyword and added the most important items with weights of occurrences, and optimized the Figure 7A to make the keywords stand out and distinct.

The texts were revised to: “According to Figure 7, keywords in the first cluster included nitrogen, biomass, soil, productivity, phosphorus, plant community, gradient, fertilization, and minerali-zation, which the top items were nitrogen with 1834 weights of occurrences, biomass with 1196 weights of occurrences. Keywords in the second cluster mainly contained vegetation, conservation, pattern, management, ecology, heterogeneity, abundance, and population density, which the top items were vegetation with 3371 weights of oc-currences, conservation with 2386 weights of occurrences, pattern with 2023 weights of occurrences. Keywords in the third cluster included climate change, land use, deg-radation, drought, water, terrestrial ecosystem, primary productivity, NDVI, rainfall, remote sensing classification, expansion, and impact, which the top items were climate change with 3391 weights of occurrences, land use with 1194 weights of occurrences. Keywords in the fourth cluster were closely related to the keywords included biodiver-sity, species, community, productivity, restoration, disturbance, succession, mecha-nism, functional traits, coexistence, competition, and ecosystem restoration, which the top items were biodiversity with 6838 weights of occurrences, community with 1453 weights of occurrences, species with 2075 weights of occurrences.” (Lines 221-236).

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear,

 

Based on your response letter, the initial comments I made about the quality of the article, and the changes made by the other reviewers, I consider the article suitable for publication.

 

Yours sincerely,