Land Use Affects Soil Water Balance and Soil Desiccation within the Soil Profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau Case

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

The article concerns a very important environmental problem that is becoming increasingly important due to climate change. Research on the effect of plant cover and vegetation on soil water balance and its dryness are carried out in many centers around the world, but of course local conditions are important in this case.

It should be emphasized that the article contains an analysis of long-term results, which allows for drawing reliable conclusions.

The discussion would also be significantly enriched by references to the works of authors from other research centers, including foreign ones. Not necessarily in the area of research conducted, but similar elsewhere. Therefore, I suggest that the authors enrich the literature and the discussion with works from other centers, including foreign ones.

Best regards

Author Response

Dear Mrs. Oana Karadag,

 

Thank you very much for your letter on 12 July 2022 regarding manuscript (land-1816296)“ Land use affects soil water balance and soil desiccation within the

soil profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau case.” We are grateful to you and the reviewers for the critical comments and thoughtful suggestions for improving this manuscript. Based on those comments and suggestions, we carefully revised the original manuscript. We hope the revised manuscript will meet your journal’s standards for publication. However, we are open to addressing further questions or suggestions that may arise from this revision.

Thank you for your time and help with this manuscript. Our detailed point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ comments are below. Revisions to the original version of the manuscript are shown with track changes. The line numbers listed in our responses below are those in the revised version of the manuscript with track changes showing.

 

Reviewer 1:

• It should be emphasized that the article contains an analysis of long-term results, which allows for drawing reliable conclusions.

Authors’ response: Thank you for this observation, which we have followed. We rewritten the section, in the revised version they read as follows (Lines 23-24 and 424):

 

 

Based on the analysis of long-term experimental results, this study shows that the phenomenon of soil drying caused by long-term intensive maize production cannot be ignored in the semiarid areas, and that natural revegetation under long-term abandonment, rather than artificial vegetation, may be the best type of vegetation reconstruction for this region based on soil water balances.

 

From the analysis of long-term experimental results, this study shows that long-term continuous maize under a fully mulched ridge-furrow system significantly depleted soil water and caused soil drying, but long-term wheat had greatest soil water condi-tions

 

• The discussion would also be significantly enriched by references to the works of authors from other research centers, including foreign ones. Not necessarily in the area of research conducted, but similar elsewhere. Therefore, I suggest that the authors enrich the literature and the discussion with works from other centers, including foreign ones?

Authors’ response: Thank you for this observation, which we have followed. We rewritten the section, in the revised version they read as follows (Lines 355-358 and 400-408):

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Reviewer comments for: land-1816296. Land use affects soil water balance and soil desiccation within the soil profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau case

 Soil water is one of the most important limiting factors in semi-arid revegetation. Therefore, it is a useful research in wich authors analyzed and evaluate the properties of soil water dynamics and soil desiccation to a depth of 500 cm, and tested the idea that land use affects soil drying in deep profiles. The experimental effort is consistent, so as the amount of original data presented. However, the manuscript needs improvements before publications.

Keywords: Land use; soil water; soil desiccation; deep soils; dried soil layer. Please change some keywords. Tittle and key words must not conntain the same words.

-Line 103. Calcaric Cambisol according to FAO soil classification (1990). Provide a more recent classification (2006 or 2015 of FAO).

-Some parts of the manuscript are difficult to understand, very technical, too cumbersome and too long, even speculative. In general the length of the manuscript should be reduced.

- I propose to the authors to be more specific, explanatory and simplified in order to be easily understandable from the readers

-I suggest adding photos of the experimental area (if it is posible).

-Finally, really for me, knowing that this research is based on the premise that “within soil profiles, soil field capacity (soil water content at 0.03 MPa), bulk density, and permanent wilting point were not directly measured in this study due to the practical difficulty of obtaining a large number of undisturbed sample cores from deep soil profiles”... the big question is how reliable are these simulations?. Therefore, I suggest specifying more clearly the methodology carried out and if it is possible to export it to areas without that water table.

I wish those changes will contribute to improve your paper.

Author Response

Dear Mrs. Oana Karadag, Thank you very much for your letter on 12 July 2022 regarding manuscript (land-1816296)“ Land use affects soil water balance and soil desiccation within the soil profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau case.” We are grateful to you and the reviewers for the critical comments and thoughtful suggestions for improving this manuscript. Based on those comments and suggestions, we carefully revised the original manuscript. We hope the revised manuscript will meet your journal’s standards for publication. However, we are open to addressing further questions or suggestions that may arise from this revision. Thank you for your time and help with this manuscript. Our detailed point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ comments are below. Revisions to the original version of the manuscript are shown with track changes. The line numbers listed in our responses below are those in the revised version of the manuscript with track changes showing. Reviewer 2: • 1. Keywords: Land use; soil water; soil desiccation; deep soils; dried soil layer. Please change some keywords. Tittle and key words must not conntain the same words. Authors’ response: Thank you for this suggestion, which we have followed. Keywords: Land use types; soil water content; dried soil layer • 2. Line 103. Calcaric Cambisol according to FAO soil classification (1990). Provide a more recent classification (2006 or 2015 of FAO). Authors’ response: Thank you for this suggestion, which we have followed. 32. FAO, ISSS, ISRIC. World Reference Base for Soils Resources. World Soil Resource Report No. 103. 2006. Rome, Italy. • 3. Some parts of the manuscript are difficult to understand, very technical, too cumbersome and too long, even speculative. In general the length of the manuscript should be reduced. Authors’ response: Please we have made amendments throughout the manuscript. • 4. - I propose to the authors to be more specific, explanatory and simplified in order to be easily understandable from the readers Authors’ response: Thank you for this suggestion, which we have followed. • 5. I suggest adding photos of the experimental area (if it is posible). Authors’ response: Thank you for this suggestion, which we have followed. Fig. 1. Map showing the location of the study area in Lumacha Village, Lijiabu Town, Anding District of Gansu Province, China. • 6. Finally, really for me, knowing that this research is based on the premise that “within soil profiles, soil field capacity (soil water content at 0.03 MPa), bulk density, and permanent wilting point were not directly measured in this study due to the practical difficulty of obtaining a large number of undisturbed sample cores from deep soil profiles”... the big question is how reliable are these simulations?. Therefore, I suggest specifying more clearly the methodology carried out and if it is possible to export it to areas without that water table. Authors’ response: Thank you for this observation, which we have followed (L 140-142). As the groundwater table remained at a depth of about 40 m below the surface, up-ward flow into the roo zone was negligible, and drainage out of the root zone was not considered in this region [33]

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript highlighted the deep soil water storage with 5-m in depth, the structure is solid with clear conclusion, and data is acceptable with variations. However, the only comment is the reason for the tested plants those root characteristics such as length to support your goals.

Author Response

Dear Mrs. Oana Karadag,

 

Thank you very much for your letter on 12 July 2022 regarding manuscript (land-1816296)“ Land use affects soil water balance and soil desiccation within the soil profile: Evidence from the Western Loess Plateau case.” We are grateful to you and the reviewers for the critical comments and thoughtful suggestions for improving this manuscript. Based on those comments and suggestions, we carefully revised the original manuscript. We hope the revised manuscript will meet your journal’s standards for publication. However, we are open to addressing further questions or suggestions that may arise from this revision.

Thank you for your time and help with this manuscript. Our detailed point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ comments are below. Revisions to the original version of the manuscript are shown with track changes. The line numbers listed in our responses below are those in the revised version of the manuscript with track changes showing.

 

 

Reviewer 3:

• This manuscript highlighted the deep soil water storage with 5-m in depth, the structure is solid with clear conclusion, and data is acceptable with variations. However, the only comment is the reason for the tested plants those root characteristics such as length to support your goals.

Authors’ response: Thank you for this observation. We have not directly investigated the growth depth of plant roots. However, we have collected relevant literature on the growth depth of vegetation roots in this study area and other foreign areas. Their data can support our results. We also compared and discussed these topics in the discussion section.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors detail all the changes that I suggested to improve the manuscript.  The list of points for to be consider by the authors has been answer. Then, it can be accepted.