The Temporal Variation and Spatial Scale Dependence of the Trade-Offs and Synergies among Multiple Ecosystem Services in the World Heritage Site of South China Karst

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Ecological protection in karst areas is particularly important, and the article focuses on hot topics. The overall method is a commonly used scientific model, without innovation, and the overall logic conforms to the normal scientific research process. There are some obvious questions that the author needs to answer:

(1) Why is the spatial difference in habitat quality in Figure 3 so large? This is different from the results I have learned about this area in the past. In addition, the InVEST model only uses land use. I have reason to believe that this difference is due to the author's calculation error.

(2) The result of Figure 4 is obvious. Forests are definitely the highest. The value of the Invest model itself is calculated after subjective land use. This result is not enough to bring new insights. Please try more differentiation. The most basic spatial land use change must be added by the author, otherwise the entire article is basically without work

(3) The author should map the parameter factors of several types of ecosystem system services in the supplementary materials. (For example, map the spatial parameters of water conservation to facilitate readers to compare data)

(4) In Figure 2, why did I not find any difference in the Sankey diagram? Is the picture placed in the wrong place?

(5) No new insights were obtained in the discussion section

(6) The figures after Figure 6 are not clear enough, please correct them

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

The paper is interesting and has potential. This study provides a scientific point of view to highlight a rational utilisation of natural resources and the protection of the ecological environment within the Karst WNHS in Southern China.

In my opinion you can improve the draft  following these reccomendations:

I wish suggest to add socio and economic data of the area described in the paper. How many peoples live in there? What are the most important economic activities?

Could socio-economic variables explain general increasing/decreasing trend observed by the authors?

Please pay attention to references (e.g. p. 20, line 528 Nature and not nature!).

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf