The Impact of Catastrophic Forest Fires of 2021 on the Light Soils in Central Yakutia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Line 14 and 36. It should be clarified what “Rosleskhoz” is.

 

Line 37. The "Mha" dimension is not clear. I recommend writing “millions of hectares”.

 

The capture of Figure 7 must be improved: "Soil moisture after fire in larch and pine forests in 2022-2023. The bars show depth of thawing and <state???> of groundwater: gray bar – permafrost, blue bar – groundwater. The colors of the bars' outline indicate control (green) and burnt (red) sites." 

What is means "state of groundwater" and why it is measured in meters? Do you mean the level?

 

Figure 8: The font should be enlarged.

 

The Discussion section is written in a confusing and contradictory manner. You should try to structure it.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, Thank you for for carefully reading the work and making valuable comments and changes. According to the recommendations of the respected Reviewer, the authors made the following changes to the text of the article which shown in attached file. Your corrections is marked by yellow colour.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is an interesting study about the influence of taiga fire on permafrost soils which shows significant role of vegetation types. It is worth publication, however, extensive liguistic improvements and clarifications are needed. Moreover, the article would benefit from photographs of the soil profiles. Detailed comments are on the pdf file. I recomment publication after minor revision. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, Thank you for for carefully reading the work and making valuable comments and changes. According to the recommendations of the respected Reviewer, the authors made the following changes to the text of the article which shown in attached file. Your corrections is marked by green colour.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

This study sought to investigate the effect/impact of catastrophic forest fires on the solos of the Yakutia Center in Russia. This research is quite relevant to science because it expands knowledge about how forest fires change the physicochemical properties and hydrothermal balance on the active soil and permafrost layers.

I consider it suitable for publication in Land (ISSN 2073-445X), but with some minor corrections.

 

1. Introduction

The introduction needs some changes.

Lines 51-52: If possible, include on the Figure 1 the location of the experimental area in relation to the world map.

Lines 64-67: Need to be reformulated in the context of defining the main objective of this research, relocated in the last paragraph of the introduction.

The hypotheses to be proven in this research were not well elucidated, it is necessary to make clear to Land readers.

Lines 79-80: Delete the space between lines 79-80. 

 

2. Materials and Methods

Line 91: Please describe better the plots: which area (m²), dimensions, among other important details that allow other researchers to replicate this research.

Lines 97-98: In the Figure 2 can be viewed the word "Asyma", please explain better in the text.

Lines 143-145: Rewrite this part of the text "To View Some Conclusion," Include more scientific details about the methods used using this "Past 4.0 Program" software.

 

3. Results

Lines 158-167: If it is possible to include the photos of the structures of the pedogenetic profiles of the evaluated soils.

Lines 178-179: If it is possible to include photos to visually exemplify this part of the test "As can be seen, the characteristic surface horizons of typical forest soils isappeared after the fire, and pyrogenic layer mixed with ash appeared, under which embedded cryoturbated, highly disturbed fragments of the underlying mineral layers. The appearance of signs of post-fire cryoturbation in the upper part of the profile is enhanced in cryogenic and high moisture conditions.".

Line 207: It is necessary to include the call from Table 1 within the text.

Linhas 229-239: It would be interesting to include the comment on "Soil Granulometric Composition (lines 229-239)" before the results of Table 1 (lines 207-208).

Linha 239: Make the correction: "72.9% (table 2)." to "72.9% (table 1)."

 

5. Conclusions

The conclusion needs changes. I suggest rewriting the conclusion synthesized.

Lines 462-490: I believe the stretch of lines 462-490 can be incorporated into the topic "4. Discussion" in a rewriting manner.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, Thank you for for carefully reading the work and making valuable comments and changes. According to the recommendations of the respected Reviewer, the authors made the following changes to the text of the article which shown in attached file. Your corrections is marked by blue colour.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx