Study on the Correlation between the Activity Trajectory of Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) and Meteorological Changes

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript provides interesting information about the variables influencing the migration of Crested Ibis. However, I have doubts about the appropriateness of the statistical approach. A multivariate approach, using temperature, relative humidity rainfall and wind would be better to analyse the influence of several meteorological variables on the migration of birds.

The results section needs to be rewritten, significantly shortening the text.  

The discussion section does not include any bibliographical references. It strictly does not discuss the results in terms of similar studies done on other waterbird species (ardeids, ibis and similar). This section should be rewritten and improved.

Introduction

The introduction could be improved. The first paragraph describing the colouring of the species is of no interest in the context of this work. The final paragraph mentioning the usefulness of telemetry for monitoring bird migration lacks bibliographical references. Some illustrative references made on similar species should be included.

-       In order to characterise the current status of the species, the authors should include the reference BirdLife International (2023) Species factsheet: Nipponia nippon. Downloaded from http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/asian-crested-ibis-nipponia-nippon

Material and Methods

-       I recommend unifying the abbreviations of the units of measurement. Use ha instead of hectares

-       Authors should indicate what was the weight of the birds at the time of tagging and what percentage of the weight was represented by tracker

-       Table 1. Authors should clearly indicate unit of measurement of altitude and heading direction

-       In the Collection and Preprocessing of Trajectory Data The authors indicate that three juveniles were tagged. However, below they state “The dataset used in this study includes 8760 data for Crested Ibis with ID 22 (CAFL003), 1245 data for Crested Ibis with ID 21 (CAFL004), 312 data for Crested Ibis with ID 20 (CAFL013), 525 data for Crested Ibis with ID 18 (CAFL013), and 871 data for Crested Ibis with ID 10 (4B04A0)”. The information provided is confusing. How many were actually tagged? This point needs to be clarified

-       The authors state that the meteorological data come from two stations “The dataset also includes data from weather stations with ID 57126 in Yang County, Xi'an, and ID 53947 in Tongchuan, providing daily average temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall data. However, they do not mention that these stations provide wind data.

-       Paragraphs 2.3.1 and 2.3.2. are not applicable. There is no point in developing the mathematical content of the tests used in the paper. I suggest deleting these sections.

 

Investigation on the Impact of Meteorological Factors on Crested Ibis Activities

-       The name of this section should be replaced by Results.

-       Table 4 should be mentioned in Material and Methods. I suggest making a sub-section within Material and Methods called Statistical Analysis. There the authors should indicate the statistical tools used to obtain the results.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your review and suggestions on our paper. Your valuable comments have greatly contributed to the improvement of our research. Here, I will address the specific points you raised.

 

Question One:The results section needs to be rewritten, significantly shortening the text.The discussion section does not include any bibliographical references. It strictly does not discuss the results in terms of similar studies done on other waterbird species (ardeids, ibis and similar). This section should be rewritten and improved.

Response：The Results section has been rewritten and references have been included.

 

Question Two:The introduction could be improved. The first paragraph describing the colouring of the species is of no interest in the context of this work. The final paragraph mentioning the usefulness of telemetry for monitoring bird migration lacks bibliographical references. Some illustrative references made on similar species should be included.

-       In order to characterise the current status of the species, the authors should include the reference BirdLife International (2023) Species factsheet: Nipponia nippon. Downloaded from http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/asian-crested-ibis-nipponia-nippon

 

Response:The introduction section has been rewritten.

 

Question Thress:Material and Methods

-       I recommend unifying the abbreviations of the units of measurement. Use ha instead of hectares

-       Authors should indicate what was the weight of the birds at the time of tagging and what percentage of the weight was represented by tracker

-       Table 1. Authors should clearly indicate unit of measurement of altitude and heading direction

-       In the Collection and Preprocessing of Trajectory Data The authors indicate that three juveniles were tagged. However, below they state “The dataset used in this study includes 8760 data for Crested Ibis with ID 22 (CAFL003), 1245 data for Crested Ibis with ID 21 (CAFL004), 312 data for Crested Ibis with ID 20 (CAFL013), 525 data for Crested Ibis with ID 18 (CAFL013), and 871 data for Crested Ibis with ID 10 (4B04A0)”. The information provided is confusing. How many were actually tagged? This point needs to be clarified

-       The authors state that the meteorological data come from two stations “The dataset also includes data from weather stations with ID 57126 in Yang County, Xi'an, and ID 53947 in Tongchuan, providing daily average temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall data. However, they do not mention that these stations provide wind data.

-       Paragraphs 2.3.1 and 2.3.2. are not applicable. There is no point in developing the mathematical content of the tests used in the paper. I suggest deleting these sections.

Response:The detailed conditions of the five Crested Ibises have been described.Paragraphs 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 have been deleted.

 

Investigation on the Impact of Meteorological Factors on Crested Ibis Activities

-       The name of this section should be replaced by Results.

-       Table 4 should be mentioned in Material and Methods. I suggest making a sub-section within Material and Methods called Statistical Analysis. There the authors should indicate the statistical tools used to obtain the results.

Response:The introduction section has been rewritten.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Introduction

It is not clear from the introduction what the population situation is in the wild in China of Crested Ibis. The authors report that the species became extinct in the wild in the country in 1970 and that there were captive breeding programs. However, there is no information on which population the study is being carried out and how large this population is in nature.

There is also no clear research hypothesis in the introduction. Why do the authors think that weather conditions can influence the Crested Ibis' choice of habitats? There would have to be data in the introduction that provide some theoretical basis that supports this premise.

Finally, the introduction is very general and does not provide relevant information about the current conservation status of the species.

 

Methodology

There is simply no information about the individual crested ibises that have had the transmitters implanted. In item 2.2. it is only reported that it was implanted in "three young crested ibises during the 2015 breeding season". It is not stated how long these individuals were monitored, how long the experiment took?

The results surprisingly show five individuals (and not just three as reported in the methodology), who were monitored. Where did these two other individuals come from?

There is not a single map of the region showing the movement of these animals and their habitats.

The authors spend an enormous amount of space describing mathematical derivation formulas when in fact there is already software available that does all of this. It would be enough to inform in the text the name of the software, its version and parameters introduced to generate the models.

It seems to me that the main objective of the article is not in fact aimed at the crested ibises, but a description of how to use the HQBG3621L backpack-style tracker equipment provided by Hunan Global Letter Technology Co.

Crested ibises simply disappeared from the methodology!

 

Results and discussion

Apparently we have conflicting results between individuals after all. It seems to me that there is a lot more individual indiosycrazyy here to adjust activities than a general pattern of the species. Although temperature, humidity and precipitation affected individuals in general, each of them responded differently and individually to these three climatic parameters. Therefore, perhaps the method or strategy used to generate the models is not very efficient.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

In general, English is good, but needs a general review

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your review and suggestions on our paper. Your valuable comments have greatly contributed to the improvement of our research. Here, I will address the specific points you raised.

Question One:

Introduction

It is not clear from the introduction what the population situation is in the wild in China of Crested Ibis. The authors report that the species became extinct in the wild in the country in 1970 and that there were captive breeding programs. However, there is no information on which population the study is being carried out and how large this population is in nature.

There is also no clear research hypothesis in the introduction. Why do the authors think that weather conditions can influence the Crested Ibis' choice of habitats? There would have to be data in the introduction that provide some theoretical basis that supports this premise.

Finally, the introduction is very general and does not provide relevant information about the current conservation status of the species.

 Response：

The Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) is one of the most rare bird species in the world. It was formerly widespread in North-east Asia until the late nineteenth century, north from Russia Far East to Taiwan Island and east from Japan to Gansu Province in China. The population of Crested Ibis rapidly declined during the first half of the twentieth century due to habitat degradation and over-hunting, and the species was even evaluated as extinct in the wild when the last five individuals in Japan were captured into captivity in 1981. After a few months in the same year, a remnant population of two breeding pairs and three nestlings was re-discovered in Yangxian, Shaanxi Province in Central China and renewed hope for this species.Intensive conservation efforts have been made to restore the population since the rediscovery. The Shaanxi Crested Ibis Nature Reserve was established，and intensive breeding monitoring was conducted to prevent predation of eggs and chicks and of nest disturbance by human activities. To mitigate the conflicts between animal conservation and local community development and ensure continuous population development, a series of community-based conservation measures have been undertaken. As a result, the wild population increases to over 6000 individuals in 2022, with another 1500 individuals in captivity. To reduce the risk of extinction inherent to a species confined to limited area vulnerable to catastrophes such as epidemic diseases, climate disasters and feeding ground pollution, an experimental reintroduction was conducted at a basin in Qinling Mountain, 30 km from the main distribution area of wild population during 2004-2005, where 23 captive-bred Crested Ibises were released after acclimation and successfully bred since 2006[4]. Since 2007, reintroduction of Crested Ibis has been carried out at Shaanxi, Henan, Zhejiang, and Hunan Province

Question Two:

Methodology

There is simply no information about the individual crested ibises that have had the transmitters implanted. In item 2.2. it is only reported that it was implanted in "three young crested ibises during the 2015 breeding season". It is not stated how long these individuals were monitored, how long the experiment took?

The results surprisingly show five individuals (and not just three as reported in the methodology), who were monitored. Where did these two other individuals come from?

There is not a single map of the region showing the movement of these animals and their habitats.

The authors spend an enormous amount of space describing mathematical derivation formulas when in fact there is already software available that does all of this. It would be enough to inform in the text the name of the software, its version and parameters introduced to generate the models.

It seems to me that the main objective of the article is not in fact aimed at the crested ibises, but a description of how to use the HQBG3621L backpack-style tracker equipment provided by Hunan Global Letter Technology Co.

Crested ibises simply disappeared from the methodology!

 

  Response：

Variance analysis is a parametric statistical method used to investigate whether there are significant differences in the outcomes produced by one or more factors. It can be used to compare the effect sizes of two or more factors and is widely applied in various fields of society [10]. Before conducting variance analysis, it is necessary to perform normality tests and homogeneity of variance tests on the data of Crested Ibis activities.It can be observed that the p-values for the normality test of the activity data for these five Crested Ibises are all less than 0, indicating a violation of the assumption of normality. Additionally, the activity data corresponding to the meteorological factors for these five Crested Ibises did not pass the test for homogeneity of variances among groups. Since the assumption of ANOVA (analysis of variance) is that the data should satisfy both normality and homogeneity of variances, ANOVA is not suitable in this case.

Question Three:

Results and discussion

Apparently we have conflicting results between individuals after all. It seems to me that there is a lot more individual indiosycrazyy here to adjust activities than a general pattern of the species. Although temperature, humidity and precipitation affected individuals in general, each of them responded differently and individually to these three climatic parameters. Therefore, perhaps the method or strategy used to generate the models is not very efficient.

  Response：

When investigating the impact of four meteorological factors, namely rainfall, temperature, humidity, and wind speed, on Crested Ibis activities, it is essential to consider not only the individual effects of each meteorological factor on Crested Ibis activity distances but also the interactions between pairs of factors. Therefore, this study employs the Scheirer-Ray-Hare test to examine whether the interaction effects of the two meteorological factors significantly influence Crested Ibis activity distances. If the interaction effect between two factors is significant and may interfere with the comparison of levels of one factor, a simple effect analysis is conducted. This involves fixing the other factor at a specific level and then performing the Kruskal-Wallis test for that factor. If the interaction effect between the two factors is not significant, the Kruskal-Wallis test is directly applied to each factor separately.

The rainfall (pre), temperature (tem), humidity (hum), and wind speed (wind) factors were combined in pairs, resulting in a total of 6 combinations.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors have incorporated some of the modifications suggested in the previous version. In this sense the manuscript has improved. However, in the cover letter the authors should have indicated what changes were introduced. As this new version is presented, it is difficult to assess which changes were made and which were not.

Despite these improvements, from my point of view notable problems persist:

1 In the Collection and Preprocessing of Trajectory Data, the authors indicate that three juveniles were marked but they do not mention the other two specimens that later appear in Table 2. What is the reason?.

The Statistical Analysis section has extensive and unnecessary writing. For example, lines 147-151 and 159-170 are unnecessary or must be shortened very substantially.

The results section is too long. The text should be adequately synthesized.

It is totally unacceptable that there is no discussion section.

The conclusions section is excessively long. It should be shortened and synthesized. Also, bibliography is mentioned in this section, which makes no sense.

 

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

According to your review comments, I have made revisions to the conclusion and discussion sections, removed unnecessary content, and made changes to the references and citations. I have attached the revised manuscript for your review.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors made improvements to the text of the article but I still consider that there is a need for further clarification. For example, in the introduction there is nothing that relates possible impacts of the climatic variables analyzed with the success of the species in question. There is no working hypothesis here.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

I consider that the English is adequate, just needing small adjustments.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

According to your review comments, I have made revisions to the conclusion and discussion sections, removed unnecessary content, and made changes to the references and citations. I have attached the revised manuscript for your review.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I consider that the authors made adjustments to the text that make the article good enough to be accepted.