Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

All the corrections requested have been made by the authors and the manuscript can be now accepted in its present form

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)

Review Report on the Manuscript Number: land-2182609 Title: Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis       

The manuscript investigates a comprehensive analysis of the current status of heavy metal and provides accurate information for soil pollution management in Jiangsu Province. Generally, I think that the manuscript is well written and the topic seems to be appropriate for the journal of Land. In the following, I suggest some possible improvements.

1.      I recommend summarize more accurate and representative keywords. Like the Agricultural soil and spatial distribution, just general keywords which are common, are they appropriate to be key words for this paper?

2.      The Abstract is a little confusing for readers. The methods used in this study should be presented together.

3.      The Materials and Methods section is too long and I think that this section could be reduced. I recommend combine 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 sections.

4.      Line 89-90, It would be good to add figure showing the geographical location and aerial map for your study area.

5.      why did you this study area? According to what? Investigation or other researches?

6.      Line 299-301, it would be better if you could report the actual and comparable results, so that your readers can see similar findings, if the experimental conditions were comparable to your study.

7.      Line 437 to 439, here you present interesting results, you could explore and discuss these results further.

8.      Please explain relation and extension of results obtained from the study to natural conditions in larger scales (scaling).

9.      Please check the format of the references carefully.

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you for the comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis” (ID: land-2111383). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction, which we hope to meet with approval. The language and grammar of the whole article have been further polished. Revised portion are marked up using the “Track Changes” functions and are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to your comments are as flowing:

1. I recommend summarize more accurate and representative keywords. Like the Agricultural soil and spatial distribution, just general keywords which are common, are they appropriate to be key words for this paper?

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised it to “Keywords: Heavy metal pollution; Meta-analysis; Spatio-temporal accumulation trend; Pollution control measures”.

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

2. The Abstract is a little confusing for readers. The methods used in this study should be presented together.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised it to “Abstract: In recent years, heavy metal contamination in agricultural soils in Jiangsu Province has attracted more and more attention. However, most studies were characterized by small scale, few samples and short-term monitoring. The overall status and temporal accumulation characteristics of heavy metals were not fully reflected. Therefore, this paper attempted to provide a com-prehensive analysis of the current status of heavy metal and provide accurate information for soil pollution management in Jiang-su Province. This paper collected available data in the literature (1993–2021) on heavy metal polluted agricultural soils in Jiangsu Province. Based on these available data, The weighted mean values of each heavy metal by meta-analysis. Then the ecological risks in soils were evaluated and spatiotemporal variations in the accumulation of heavy metals were explored. In addition, suggestions for pollution prevention and control were made by predicting future heavy metal concentrations. The results showed that Cd and Hg were the major polluting elements in Jiangsu Province. The spatial enrichment of heavy metals showed: Southern > Northern > Central. Heavy metal concentrations in Nanjing, Suzhou and Xuzhou should be paid special attention. The ecological risk level of heavy metals in agricultural soils in Jiangsu Province was strong, predominantly contributed by Hg and Cd. The ac-cumulation of most heavy metals gradually decreased after 2010, while Cd did the opposite. Jiangsu Province should continue to take active pollution control measures in order to maintain the decreasing trend of heavy metal concentrations in farmland soils. This study could provide a scientific and theoretical basis for the development of pollution control and soil remediation measures.”

Specific modifications please see line 13 to 26 in the revised version.

3. The Materials and Methods section is too long and I think that this section could be reduced. I recommend combine 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 sections.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have combined 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 sections. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

4. Line 89-90, It would be good to add figure showing the geographical location and aerial map for your study area.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We added new Fig.1. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

5. why did you this study area? According to what? Investigation or other researches?

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We studied the region for the following reasons:

1）The agricultural soil heavy metal pollution has attracted more and more researchers' attention in Jiangsu. However, most studies of the pollution in agricultural soils in Jiangsu focused on the pollution status of single cities or close to pollution sources, such as Nanjing, Wuxi and Kunshan (Zhao et al., 2007; Fang et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2016); 2）there was few research on long-term monitoring of soil heavy metals across Jiangsu Province. The overall status and temporal ac-cumulation characteristics of heavy metals were not fully reflected; 3）Previously Liao et al. (2009) studied the pollution of heavy metals in the whole area of Jiangsu province. Since then, few articles have discussed the agricultural soil pollution in Jiangsu Province again.

Therefore, this paper conducted a meta-analysis based on 129 primary publications on agricultural soil pollution in Jiangsu Province published from 1993 to 2021, to evaluate the current status and spatiotemporal accumulation trend of heavy metal pollution. to achieve the purpose of provide accurate information for soil pollution management in Jiangsu Province.

6. Line 299-301, it would be better if you could report the actual and comparable results, so that your readers can see similar findings, if the experimental conditions were comparable to your study.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. In section 4.1, We added the discussion. We have revised it to “Compared with the reported other regions in the world, the concentration of Cr, Cu, Hg, Zn in this study was more than twice that of the USA and Europe, but less than half that of Iran and India(Reimann et al., 2012; Adimalla et al., 2019; Sayadi et al., 2015; Schacter and Berngan, 1984). The As concentrations was slightly higher than in the US and Europe. This may be related to the higher natural background values of soils in Jiangsu Province than in the United States and Europe. Many studies have shown that economic development and human activities in Jiangsu Province have significant negative effects on soil environment (Liao et al., 2009; Shao et al., 2016; Huang et al., 2019). Therefore, there is still large room for agricultural soil governance in Jiangsu Province, compared with European and American countries.”

Specific modifications please see the section 4.1, line 301 to 308 in the revised version.

7. Line 437 to 439, here you present interesting results, you could explore and discuss these results further.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. In section 4.3, We added the discussion. We have revised it to “During the study period, GDP in Jiangsu province grew year by year, with the most prominent growth trend in southern Jiangsu. The proportion of primary industry and secondary industry output continued to decline (Fig.5a). Obviously, the industrial structure of Jiangsu was constantly restructured. The consumption of agricultural chemi-cal and chemical fertilizers de-creased yearly. Although the consumption of agricultural plastic film increased, since 2010, showed negative growth (Fig.5b). The growth rate of live-stock production also slowed down yearly, especially for hogs and poultry (Huang et al., 2019). Jiangsu comprehensively promoted agricultural prevention and control technologies, promoted real-name purchase of pesticides and other measures to effectively reduce the input of agricultural materials. It made important contribution to improving soil environment and reducing heavy metal concentration. The emissions of industrial saplhut dioxide and wastewater decreased continuously. The downward trend was more pronounced since 2010 (Fig.5c, Fig.5d). Industrial soot emissions have been falling since 2014. Although waste residue emissions continue to increase, the growth rate slowed down yearly (Fig.5d). The average annual growth rate of waste residue showed negative growth since 2010. China promotes a circular economy, reduces resource waste and controls high-polluting enterprises (Ren et al., 2021). Jiangsu strictly implemented national policies, changed industrial structure and energy consumption, and effectively limited pollutant emissions. These measures reduced heavy metal input caused the concentration showed a downward trend.”

Specific modifications please see line 429 to 433 in the revised version.

8. Please explain relation and extension of results obtained from the study to natural conditions in larger scales (scaling).

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. Revised. In section 4, We added the discussion.

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

9. Please check the format of the references carefully.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. Revised. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)

Thanks to authors for such comprehensive study and have read with interest.

Although content is valuable, but still in article are lot of mistakes and most of them are connected with references. At least 10% of citations cannot find in references and even more found in text which haven't represented in references.

Is precipitation and their differences influencing soils and possible leaching of metals between studied areas? 

In 114 line reagents without subscript.

In text mentioned supplementary material and also Tables S4, D5, but I didn't received or seen them.

line 182 - table S2 (is it table 2 or something from supplementary material?)

In text differs style with distance between number and represented value as well as frequently have no space between words.

Line 348-349 sentence about lighting is not relevant to study and have no direct correlation to metal concentrations.

In 4.3. different font is used and Fig 4. quality could be better.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you for the comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis” (ID: land-2111383). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction, which we hope to meet with approval. The language and grammar of the whole article have been further polished. Revised portion are marked up using the “Track Changes” functions and are marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to your comments are as flowing:

1. Although content is valuable, but still in article are lot of mistakes and most of them are connected with references. At least 10% of citations cannot find in references and even more found in text which haven't represented in references.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised references.

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

2. Is precipitation and their differences influencing soils and possible leaching of metals between studied areas?

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. In section4.2, we added discussion of the effects of precipitation and their differences on heavy metal concentrations.

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

3. In 114 line reagents without subscript.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised.

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

4. In text mentioned supplementary material and also Tables S4, D5, but I didn't received or seen them.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We added Appendix and Supplementary.

 Specific modifications please see the revised version of TableA4, Table A5 in Appendix.

5. line 182 - table S2 (is it table 2 or something from supplementary material?)

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We added Appendix and Supplementary.

 Specific modifications please see the revised version of TableA1, Table A2 in Appendix.

6. In text differs style with distance between number and represented value as well as frequently have no space between words.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

7. Line 348-349 sentence about lighting is not relevant to study and have no direct correlation to metal concentrations.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised it to “Jiangsu Province is one of the fastest developing provinces in China with developed secondary and tertiary industries. Industrial manufacturing, transportation, chemical raw material production and other industries would produce a lot of waste gas, soot, waste water and waste residue. It means that the soil environment may carry a huge amount of anthropogenic waste discharge and accumulate heavy metal pollutants. All cities in Jiangsu Province were divided into three groups according to the level of potential ecological risk in this study (Fig.3).”

Specific modifications please see the section 4.1, line 352 to 360 in the revised version.

8. In 4.3. different font is used and Fig 4. quality could be better.

Authors Reply: Thanks for your comment. We have revised it to:

Specific modifications please see the revised version.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

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

The abstract was well written and described the importance of the study, its methods, results and future projections

The methods section was a significant component, in that, the selection of manuscripts for inclusion and the conditioning of the data was superior. 

Small items 

references line 586 - list journal

references line 675 - remove all caps,

The tables 1 to 3 illustrate the manuscripts methodology

Figures s1 and s2 effectively represent the data analysis

A few minor English upgrades exist

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you for the comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis” (ID: land-2111383). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction, which we hope to meet with approval. The language and grammar of the whole article have been further polished. Revised portion are marked up using the “Track Changes” functions and are marked in red in the paper. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

Reviewer 2 Report

Although having local interest, this study can provide a general view on soil metal pollution in Jiangsu Province in China. The methodology used in this work can also be applied in the other similar studies. So, it can be considered for publication in “LAND”.

However, I have a general comment on this manuscript:

The influence of soil properties on spatial distribution of heavy metals in the studied region has not been considered in this work. This is also true for geological or pedological differences across the study area which can influence on variation of heavy metals in soils. To achieve a more accurate assessment of pollution status in a region, it is necessary to include other infusing factors rather that factors such number of sampling points, etc.

other minor comments and suggestions highlighted in manuscript main text can be found attached file .

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for the comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis” (ID: land-2111383). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction, which we hope to meet with approval. The language and grammar of the whole article have been further polished. Revised portion are marked up using the “Track Changes” functions and are marked in red in the paper. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The spatial variation of pollutants is also due to climatic and relief conditions, weathering processes, as well as the distance to pollution sources. No reference is made to climate conditions, relief, soil characteristics (organic matter, texture and mineralogy, mainly), as well as weathering processes in each study region. This affects both the presence of heavy metals, their retention in the soil along the time and the spatial variability.

The transformation of values also affects the error in the modelling processes and, therefore, affects the results that are found. This was not analysed. Another factor that is not adequately addressed is the sampling scale. The sampling distance affects the variance and the standard deviation. On the other hand, the intensity of sampling has an impact on the results and also depends on the homogeneity of the area. This also affects the proposed statistical analyses.

Outliers were to be expected, due to the diversity of studies. These can be concentrated in one or two areas. The authors do not indicate from which zones these atypical values were eliminated and, in addition to the mathematical reasons for their elimination, they do not indicate why these values were presented, whose presence may also have a relationship with the source of contamination, soil management or former factors. That is, an analysis of these samples is not presented.

The presence of heavy metals is affected by soil formation processes. Although this is addressed by the authors, the subject lacks depth, especially when the presence of heavy metals is related to addition processes. How much is the presence of heavy metals in a given area due to natural conditions and to anthropic conditions?

When working on different papers, even on the same topic, they do not necessarily present common objectives and methodologies among them, nor do they present the same errors and precisions in obtaining results. This is also not presented in this document.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:
Thank you for the comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Current Situation of Agricultural Soil Pollution in Jiangsu Province: A Meta-analysis” (ID: land-2111383). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to us researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction, which we hope to meet with approval. The language and grammar of the whole article have been further polished. Revised portion are marked up using the “Track Changes” functions and are marked in red in the paper. Specific modifications please see the revised version.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx