Scale Effects of Landscape Patterns on Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution in Yanshan River Basin, Guilin, China
, Pengwei Xue 1, Chuanlin Zou 1, Jianhua Huang 1, Qinxue Xu 1,2,3 and Junfeng Dai 2,3Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsPlease see the attachment.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Extensive editing of the English language is required.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe current study with ID: water-3065384 is a sort of a replicated study. Studies of this nature have been undertaken in China before now (see http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131907 and https://doi.org/10.13227/j.hjkx.202201128, for example). The study offers some insights which may be specific to the studied basin but the results are jumbled up, and there is no clear distinction between the years and the seasons, which makes it hard to understand the spatiotemporal trends. I encourage the authors to use the following suggestions to improve the draft.
-The title needs to be rethought about. The study was actually done in Yanshan River Basin. Since it is a small watershed of Lijiang River Basin, the title should reflect Yanshan River Watershed and leave the latter to be only indicated in the study area description as it is currently.
L82-89: Please cite some references here.
In Figure 1, you need to give the maps maybe alphabetical letters (a), (b), (c) and (d) which will explain in each case what the individual map represents. This will be more informative.
L93: Which rivers do you refer to? Do you mean tributaries of the Yanshan River?
L96-97: Why were water samples collected every 10 days during wet seasons and monthly during dry seasons on average? I would expect a systematic approach.
-For replicability purposes, indicate the manufacturer and their location for the multi-parameter water quality analyzer (YSI556) and a reference to the GB3838-2002 standard, otherwise the procedures followed would briefly be described. It is surprising that water parameters like TDS and temperature were not recorded with the multimeter.
L104-123: It is important that you make some citations to previous studies which used this approach, and for the classification in Table 1.
L151-161: It is better to present means of the values with standard deviations attached. The most useful part of this should preferably focus on the seasonal variations over the study period.
Figure 3 is very confusing. I would expect that the individual parameters are plotted separately on their own axes because they don’t share the same units. Also, you need to show the results for all the four seasons in the two years.
In Table 3, what does Wet reasons and Day reasons mean? It should be separated which seasons for which year for us to clearly see the patterns.
In Figure 5, what does the numbers 1 to 21 on the x-axis represent?
-The discussion may not flow at the moment since the results are jumbled up. Please check the following previous studies and see their presentation to guide you with reorganizing the manuscript. Please, you do not need to cite any of these studies but only use them to guide you.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131907
https://doi.org/10.13227/j.hjkx.202201128
https://doi.org/10.13227/j.hjkx.202110065
The supplementary files should not be uploaded since they contain the same figures and tables which are already in the main manuscript file.
-Both intext citations and references should be aligned to the journal guidelines.
-Other suggestions are in the attachment.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Needs moderate revision. There evident mistakes (omissions and repetitions), some of which are marked in the attached PDF file
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript titled Scale effects of landscape pattern on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in a small watershed of Lijiang River Basin, China can be accepted after Major (moderately) revised.
Abstract
In my opinion, this part could be rewritten in one sentence. The authors can better explain why they analyzed this topic. The authors need to better explain dividing on the type of land (soils). The one define statistics could be established about land characteristics.
Key words
I think the authors can add one word that explains the research in this study in more detail.
Due to the large number of scientific terms, I recommend that the authors add a section labeled "Abbreviations",
Introduction
The sentence in line 50 must be written in the same font.
The same in line 63.
The authors must divide two parts of the methodology in this part of the manuscript. In the first part, it is good to write more about GIS and the GIS technology used. In the next part, it is good to know the type of pollutant and where these pollutants are located in the soil or water.
Based on the above points, I strongly recommend the authors to read and cite two valuable research papers. In these papers, the research methodology is well explained.
The recommended references are
- Stevanović, V., Gulan, L., Milenković, B. et al. Environmental risk assessment of radioactivity and heavy metals in soil of Toplica region, South Serbia. Environ Geochem Health 40, 2101–2118 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0085-0.
- Akinbile, C. O., Erazua, A. E., Babalola, T. E., & Ajibade, F. O. (2016). Environmental implications of animal wastes pollution on agricultural soil and water quality. Soil & Water Research, 11(3).
The Introduction must be extended and few sentences need to be added.
Materials and methods
The authors need to add more about the characteristics of the Lijiang River Basin, especially the hydrological and geomorphological features.
Line 98 , how the authors measured the pH. Was this sample used from land or water?
Is the equation (1) value range of pollution between 0 and 1, better explain.
Why is the equation (4) written in %, explain better.
Table 1 is this table used value in any order or not, better explain.
Classification of Land Use in the YRB
As the Fig.2 subdivided characterization of the downstream must be better explained
It is essential to expand the Methods section
Conclusion
In this section, the authors need to find answers to the following questions?
Why is this research important?
The section is overall short and must be mandatory extend.
I recommend a Major revision (Moderate)
Good luck to the authors
Reviewer#2
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript is much improved. The authors have done a great job responding to comments throughout the article and improving the English as well. This manuscript will make a good contribution to the literature as a research article. Thank you for all your efforts. I recommend accepting this article for publication after the following minor changes.
1. Please change the figure caption for Figure 1, as you have done for the other figures.
2. Please check the reference citations in the text since the pdf file shows Chinese characters.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageModerate editing of English language might be required.
Author Response
First of all, I would like to thank the reviewer for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me revise my paper. Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe authors answered the most mportant concerns I had raised on the preceding version of the manuscript. I see some minor corrections.
1. Some of the intext citations were lost and the error (probably from EndNote) appears in Chinese. Please rework the intext citations and update the references accordingly.
2. Expand the abbreviations in L250 so that the figure is self explanatory.
3. For Figure 7(a) and (b), you need to put a scale bar showing what the intensities of the correlation colors stand for. This is possible in GraphPad Prism. Equiavlently, you could call our the Pearson (r) values in each of the boxes, which then means you would not need a scale bar.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor fixes required
Author Response
First of all, I would like to thank the reviewer for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me revise my paper. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript entitled Scale effects of landscape pattern on nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in a small watershed of Lijiang River Basin, China can be accepted for publication after a minor (moderate) revision.
I was a little confused that I received two versions of the revised manuscript.
Since the authors deal with the different landscape, I recommend the authors to read two valuable references (research). In these research papers, they will find different methods used to analyze land, landscape, etc. and river network analysis. The GIS methods in these papers well explained. Based on the information listed, I strongly recommend the authors to read and cite these papers. These references can be added in the section Introduction
The recommended references are
- Valjarević, A. GIS-Based Methods for Identifying River Networks Types and Changing River Basins. Water Resour Manage (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-024-03916-7.
- Lech, P.; Kamińska, A. “Mortality or not mortality, that is the question ...": How to Treat Removals in Tree Survival Analysis of Central European Managed Forests. Plants 2024, 13, 248. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13020248.
The authors have responded very seriously to almost all of my comments, with the exception of the following
-The GIS methods and the creation of the maps need to be better explained.
The reviewer
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageAuthor Response
First of all, I would like to thank the reviewer for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me revise my paper. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
