Delineation of Hydrochemical Characteristics and Tracing Nitrate Contamination of Groundwater Based on Hydrochemical Methods and Isotope Techniques in the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)
This manuscript, water-1920929-peer-review-v1- entitled "Hydrochemical Characteristics and Identification of Nitrate Contamination of Groundwater in the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China," is well written and has potential, but it should be more organized. This research highlights the effectiveness of integrating hydrochemical and isotopic data for nitrate source identification.
In my opinion, a careful revision of the English language should be carried out as there currently are some unclear sentences. The study seems to be well designed. The methodology and results are technically sound. Discussions on the scientific and practical values of the study, the limitations of proposed models, and future work are meaningful. I recommend accepting this manuscript after revision. The main concerns are as follows:
1) The title section should be edited and rewritten since it is too general, and it is better to add an isotope study in the title.
2) The authors had a great job to refer 88 scientific studies in which Thesis and Chinese papers are included. I recommend substituting papers with a similar study but in English so that it would be more beneficial for the paper's readers.
3) More literature review about the other methods is needed. The manuscript could be substantially improved by relying and citing more on recent literature about contemporary real-life case studies of sustainability and/or uncertainty, such as the followings.
· Eskandari, E., Mohammadzadeh, H., Nassery, H., Vadiati, M., Zadeh, A. M., & Kisi, O. (2022). Delineation of isotopic and hydrochemical evolution of karstic aquifers with different cluster-based (HCA, KM, FCM and GKM) methods. Journal of Hydrology, 609, 127706.
4) Improving the flowchart (Fig. 2) is highly recommended.
5) The northern Huangqihai Basin is adopted as the case study. What are other feasible alternatives? What are the advantages of adopting this case study over others in this case? How will this affect the results? The authors should provide more details on this.
6) Please provide all software used in this study. Which software did you use to apply the analysis?
7) It is important to give a better description of the samples and the sampling protocol since we are trying to understand the data variability. What are the advantages of adopting these parameters over others in this case? How will this affect the results? More details should be furnished.
Author Response
The response was listed in the PDF document.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)
Dear,
Comments are attached.
Best regards
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
The response was listed in the PDF document.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)
The manuscript water-1920929 provides a study on the factors that control the concentrations of nitrate in the Groundwater of the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China
The paper appears no well-structured and some sections must be improved. Therefore, I believe the manuscript should be published only after major revision.
Comments (R = row#):
R=43 it would be appropriate to include some references on the origins of fluoride and arsenic, see for example the works of Fuoco et al., (2022):
Fuoco I., De Rosa R., Barca D., Figoli A., Gabriele B. and Apollaro C., (2022). Arsenic polluted waters: Application of geochemical modelling as a tool to understand the release and fate of the pollutant in crystalline aquifers. Journal of Environmental Management, 301, p.113796.
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113796
Fuoco, I., et al. "Use of reaction path modelling to investigate the evolution of water chemistry in shallow to deep crystalline aquifers with a special focus on fluoride." Science of The Total Environment 830 (2022): 154566.
R=137 the geological map of figure 1, should be graphically improved and the main tectonic features should be inserted in the map.
R=169 in all the paragraph " Data preparation", change the term tested to the term analyzed
R=296 also include a reference in English
R=356 nothing is said about the construction method of these maps and the geostatistical methods used.
R=388 To evaluate the chemical composition of the water it is not enough to use the Piper diagram because it does not take into account (as proposed by the authors) salinity, I suggest using a TIS salinity diagram, as proposed by:
Apollaro, C.; Vespasiano, G.; De Rosa, R.: Marini L. Use of mean residence time and flowrate of thermal waters to evaluate the volume of reservoir water contributing to the natural discharge and the related geothermal reservoir volume. Application to Northern Thailand hot springs. Geothermics 2015, 58, 62-74
R=415 the origin in the fluoride in the waters can also derive from the dissolution of silicate minerals such as micas, see for example the work of Fuoco et al., (2022).
R=449 also include a reference in English
R=469 number the reactions
R=510 also include a reference in English
R=519 after The global meteoric water line , insert the reference of :
Craig, H., 1961. Isotopic variations in meteoric waters. Science, 133(3465), pp.1702-1703
R=540 the equation shown in figure 8 is different from this one!
R=709 The conclusions should be revised taking into account the previous comments
Recommended works must be added in the bibliography:
Craig, H., 1961. Isotopic variations in meteoric waters. Science, 133(3465), pp.1702-1703
Fuoco, I., De Rosa, R., Barca, D., Figoli, A., Gabriele, B. and Apollaro, C., 2022. Arsenic polluted waters: Application of geochemical modelling as a tool to understand the release and fate of the pollutant in crystalline aquifers. Journal of Environmental Management, 301, p.113796.
Fuoco, I., et al. "Use of reaction path modelling to investigate the evolution of water chemistry in shallow to deep crystalline aquifers with a special focus on fluoride." Science of The Total Environment 830 (2022): 154566.
Apollaro, C., Di Curzio, D., Fuoco, I., Buccianti, A., Dinelli, E., Vespasiano, G., Castrignanò, A., Rusi, S., Barca, D., Figoli, A. and Gabriele, B., 2022. A multivariate non-parametric approach for estimating probability of exceeding the local natural background level of arsenic in the aquifers of Calabria region (Southern Italy). Science of the Total Environment, 806, p.150345.
Author Response
The response was listed in the PDF document.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)
the authors have done a good work of revision and the work is now acceptable for the publication
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript, water-1816484-peer-review-v1- entitled "Hydrochemical Characteristics and Identification of Nitrogen Pollution of Groundwater in Northern Huangqihai Basin, China," is well written and has potential, but it should be more organized. This research investigates the Traditional hydrochemical methods and isotope techniques.
In my opinion, a careful revision of the English language should be carried out as there currently are some unclear sentences. The study seems to be well designed. The methodology and results are technically sound. Discussions on the scientific and practical values of the study, the limitations of proposed models, and future work are meaningful. I recommend accepting this manuscript after revision. The main concerns are as follows:
1) The first paragraph is too general should explain more about the importance of identification of pollution nitrogen in groundwater
2) Improve the keywords by including only the phrases in the whole body. It is better to avoid using phrases that are repeated in the title.
3) Some abbreviations in the paper have already not been addressed in the text like GMS, BOD and etc.
4) More literature review about the other methods is needed. The manuscript could be substantially improved by relying and citing more on recent literature about contemporary real-life case studies of sustainability and/or uncertainty, such as the followings.
Eskandari, E., Mohammadzadeh, H., Nassery, H., Vadiati, M., Zadeh, A. M., & Kisi, O. (2022). Delineation of isotopic and hydrochemical evolution of karstic aquifers with different cluster-based (HCA, KM, FCM and GKM) methods. Journal of Hydrology, 609, 127706.
Rezaei, K., & Vadiati, M. (2020). A comparative study of artificial intelligence models for predicting monthly river suspended sediment load. Journal of Water and Land Development.
5) I recommend providing a table containing the advantages and disadvantages of the applied methodology based on the literature review and comparing the applied methodology and the similar methodologies.
6) Providing a comprehensive flowchart is highly recommended by researchers, so please add a flowchart representing the methodology in the paper.
7) Northern huangqihai basin is adopted as the case study. What are other feasible alternatives? What are the advantages of adopting this case study over others in this case? How will this affect the results? The authors should provide more details on this.
8) Tab. 7 is a important table in the manuscript, and, unfortunately, the authors did not try to discuss it in a specific way. A comprehensive discussion emphasizing would significantly improve the paper on the table.
9) It is important to give a better description of the samples and the sampling protocol since we are trying to understand the data variability. What are the advantages of adopting these parameters over others in this case? How will this affect the results? More details should be furnished.
10) Comparison of the current study with previous researchbcould be improved by more literature review.
Author Response
Thanks for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Hydrochemical Characteristics and Identification of Nitrogen Pollution of Groundwater in the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China” (Water-1816484). These comments are valuable and helpful for revising and improving our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made corrections that we hope meet with approval.
The revised portions are marked up by using the “Track changes” function. The responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below.
Once again, thank you and the reviewers.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Comments are attached.
Best regards
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thanks for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Hydrochemical Characteristics and Identification of Nitrogen Pollution of Groundwater in the Northern Huangqihai Basin, China” (Water-1816484). These comments are valuable and helpful for revising and improving our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made corrections that we hope meet with approval.
The revised portions are marked up by using the “Track changes” function. The responses to the reviewer’s comments are listed below.
Once again, thank you and the reviewers.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Comments and suggestions are attached.
Best regards
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
