Ecovoltaics: Maintaining Native Plants and Wash Connectivity inside a Mojave Desert Solar Facility Leads to Favorable Growing Conditions
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Important article and new idea reflect a good data for the protection of native plants inside a Mojave Desert solar facility and leads to favorable growing which is very important for environmental protection.
Author Response
We appreciate that reviewer 1 believes our manuscript contains important information related to the installation of solar facilities in desert environments.
Reviewer 2 Report
1. It is not recommended to use personal pronouns in scientific texts. It is necessary to revise the text of the article.
2. The abstract of the paper requires a complete revision; it must clearly formulate: relevance, purpose of the study, applied methods, results.
3. In the Introduction, the review presents the experience of the influence of the solar facility on growing conditions. But most of the cited works concern only the USA. It is recommended that the authors expand the geography of the review and try to reflect experiences from around the world.
4. In the Methods part, it is necessary to indicate the research and measurements are regulated by which state standard, according to which guidelines the experiment is carried out.
5. The Conclusion section is missing
Author Response
1) Not recommended to use personal pronouns. We removed the word "we" in the text (50 removals), altering the sentence structure.
2) The abstract of the paper requires a complete revision - the abstract was rewritten, adding test to introduce the subject and giving justification for the study. the abstract includes more results all with p values to indicate statistical significance . the abstract end with some general conclusions.
3) expand the geography of the review. We added 5 recent citations, 4 from outside of the US.
4)Measurements regulated by state? We added the following text; Although the land was owned by the electric company, permitting required approval from both the Bureau of Land Management and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. No restrictions or approvals associated with the study were required by these agencies.
5) Conclusion section is missing. We captured the last few paragraphs under the title of "Concluding Comments"
Reviewer 3 Report
Although the paper is well written but there are some weak areas to be covered.
1-Ambrosia dumosa and Larrea tridentata are the only two native shrub species on which the paper primarily focuses on growth and responses. Including more species in the analysis could lead to a more thorough comprehension of the ecological effects.
2-It does not include a detailed analysis of how these changes in plant communities may affect the nearby fauna. For a comprehensive evaluation of solar facilities' effects on ecosystems, it is crucial to comprehend the ecological interactions between plants and animals.
3- A comparative analysis with the similar type of studied must be inculded.
4-The results of this study are restricted to a particular spatial and temporal scale found in the Mojave Desert. The size, location, and longevity of solar installations can all have a substantial impact on their ecological effects. Including a consideration of the possible variations in impact at various scales and environments would improve the paper's usefulness and relevance.
5- The study falls short of providing in-depth analyses of the causal mechanisms underlying the plant responses that are observed. Having a clear understanding of the reasons for certain changes is crucial when making decisions about the design and administration of solar facilities.
6-Although alternative renewable energy sources and their possible ecological effects are not discussed, the research mainly focuses on the effects of solar facilities. For policymakers and industry stakeholders, a more comprehensive examination of various forms of renewable energy installations and their respective effects would be beneficial.
7-The majority of the historical data used in the study goes back to 2021. Given how quickly the field of conservation and renewable energy is developing, it would be helpful to offer predictions about how the ecological effects might alter in the future when taking future developments in energy policy and technology into account.
8-A more thorough explanation of the observed effects' statistical significance would be beneficial. Providing more information about the statistical rigour of the findings would strengthen the credibility.
9-What is novelty of the study?
The paper need minor English revision.
Author Response
1) Include more species; We have inserted text stating that the dominant plants at the site were Larrea tridentata and Ambrosis dumosa which is the dominant plant community in the Mojave Desert.
2) address plant animal interactions. We agree with the reviewer that monitoring animal life is important especially the interactions between plants and animals. We did not have the personnel nor the funds to monitor the animals, so we focused on assessing the habitat where Larrea , Ambrosia and the solar panels provided the majority of cover for small animal life such as the Desert tortoise. The fact that we observed desert tortoise inside the facility but not outside the facility suggested that the habitat provided by the panels and the plant life was adequate.
3) A comparative analyses with similar types of studies. We are not aware of any studies associated with solar facilities in desert environments where plants and washes were left intact.
4) Spatial and temporal scales. Observations from this study were in contrast to a utility scale photovoltaic facility (~2.6 km2) in Eldorado Valley )NV,USA) where no plant or animal life was observed inside the panel rows during a multi year study. Whereas at a new facility in southern Nevada, which will become the largest solar facility in North America, native plants have been left intact but mowed at different heights, while desert tortoise were not relocated during construction (personal communication). Research is needed to compare the results form different solar facilities that differ significantly on a spatial scale to determine what information is transferable, especially when dealing with long lived shrubs such as Larrea tridentata (~300 years in the Sonoran Desert) and animals such as the desert tortoise (15-50+ years).
5) More comprehensive examination of various forms of renewable energy. We agree that such a comprehensive examination of various forms of renewable energy would be of value, such an approach should be found in review papers or policy papers. We believe it is outside the focus of our study, which reports on a field experiment
6) Helpful to offer predictions about how the ecological effects might alter in the future. We understand the reviewers question but believe it would represent too much speculation on our part. However, we agree such discussion needs to take place. Our response in 4) above partially addresses this.
7) More thorough explanation of observed effects - statistical significance would be beneficial. In the results section, we report 40 p values and 29 R2 p value combinations demonstrating that the results were statistically significant and worthy of reporting. "Clearly the plant response in this study could not be explained by a single biotic or abiotic factor instead the responses were dynamically linked to many factors such as PAR reduction, heat transfer, rainwater harvesting , panel row spacing , plant location and species"
8) What is the novelty of the study? We are unaware of any published data in which such detailed plant monitoring occurred associated with a solar facility in a desert setting in which washes and native plants were kept intact. We introduce the concept of "ecovoltaic"
