The Influence of Konik Horses Grazing and Meteorological Conditions on Wetland Communities

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The topic of the article is interesting, while there are many problems in the scientific content, chart presentation, language expression and format.

1.Introduction

This part needs to describe the necessity of the research more clearly.

Why did the authors choose Biebrza National Park as studied site. Please give more details about the representativeness of this site, such as the characteristics of the vegetation and the significance of this site to the  ecosystem of Europe.

It is recommended to divide the second paragraph of Introduction into two sections. Firs, it can introduce the importance of the Biebrza National Park research site. Then, it can explain the significance of studying Konik horses in more detail.

Line48 Why could grazing enhance local biodiversity? Please explain the mechanism more comprehensively.

Line53 Why used the Konik horse widely in Europe to protect the grassland? Please give more explaniation.

Line57-61 One of the aim of this study was to "indicate the main threats to grazed meadows". It is recommended that fully show the main threats to the European meadow in the Introduction. And how did the previous research evaluate threats through experiment? 

 

2.Methods

Line63-75 The background of the experimental plot could be described in more detail on the annual maximum and annual minimum of precipitation, average annual temperature, soil physical and chemical properties, and the dominant plant species.

Line75 There are problems with the presentation of temperature units. Please check them.

In Figure 1, the north arrow and legend are missing.

Some of the experimental sites are close to each other, and some of them are far away from each other. What is the reason?

Line97 Please write the names of the authors cited.

Line99-100 Did the entry of other animals to the study site frequent or intense? Would this disturbance affect the research?

Line103 The number of horses raised and stocking rate were different each year. Why did not set them to the same? You use the unit, "LU/ha", for the stocking rate. Was it an international unit?

Line103 The "*" position of the “Total number of horses” and “Stocking rate” need to be same.

Line106 The formula for measuring the species diversity within the community in this section should be presented and make explanations in the text.

Line124 Why were the frequency of mowing in the three plots different?

Line132 Would it be too few and unrepresentative to choose only 4 replications?

 

3.Results

Line161 The "(Table A1 in Appendix A)" can be changed to "Table A1", which will more concise.

Line163-164 What did the "(Nordh. 1937) R.Tx. 1937" and "R.Tx. et Prsg 1942" mean？Please give more explaniation in the methods.

Line175 (1) The text above the table should be placed under the table as notes. (2) The text format of the table should be unified, and only the title could be bold. Why do you need a horizontal line under the "northern meadows"? (3) Please unify the number format and use the decimal point.

Line210 The “1 – northern meadow, 2 – mid-forest meadows, 3 – sedge 214 community, 4 - near-forest meadow” could be unified by abbreviations, which can be displayed and read much easier.

Line226-228 Do not explain the content of the figure in the main text, please put it as note under the picture.

 

Language and Format

The grammar of some sentences have problems, such as Line 24-26, Line 51-52, Line 68-71. Please read the full text and improve the language expression.

There are repeated spaces between the characters. Please check through the manuscript.

Some sentences have two periods at the end, such as Line 124.

Some numbers used decimal points and some used commas. Please unify them.

Need space before paragraph, e.g. Line 309.

The format of reference must be checked and improved carefully. Some references did not have title. 

 

Author Response

Thank you for all your remarkable comments and remarks. We have incorporated them in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Grazing is one of the ways of raising livestock, and also the simplest and most effective way of utilizing grassland. The aim of the study was to characterize grassland communities grazed by Konik horses and to assess the influence of short-term grazing on the grassland community. I just have several small questions, 1) some professional expression need to revise, for example  "sward" ;2) The study was conducted in 2008-2010? do you have the latest data? In addition, the time is shorter for grazing experiment. 3) some figures need to redraw, for example fig.3-fig.5.

Author Response

Thank you for all your remarkable comments and remarks. We have incorporated them in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The influence of Konik horses grazing and meteorological conditions on wetland communities

The focus of this paper is to assess the effect of grazing on plant composition and vegetation structure in fens by comparing grazed and ungrazed plots.

The paper would benefit from professional editing of language. The questions addressed are relevant but the hypotheses could be more clearly stated in the introduction and better supported by international literature.

 

My comments and suggestions can be seen below

 

General comments:
Editing of English language is required throughout the manuscript (in my opinion… words are missing and misplaced etc) – I have therefore not commented on linguistics below.

Abstract:
Line 17-19: Given your findings that flooding has a greater impact on plant communities than grazing in this short term study I guess, you could mention that it is important for future management to conduct long-term monitoring?

Line 18: Extensive mowing has not been mentioned before – only grazing. Maybe add this to the description of the management of the study sites. How does the effect of mowing relate to the effect of grazing?

Introduction:
Line 35-36: I guess the only reason the area requires mowing is because the grazing densities are not natural/high enough? Under natural conditions mowing would not occur – grazing would.

Line 40: For how long has the extensive mowing been part of the management of the park?

Line 47-48: Can you be more specific, please? How does grazing with horses benefit biodiversity? Which species/species groups are expected to benefit from grazing? Is the benefit of horse grazing different from cattle grazing etc?

Also you could add some more specific hypotheses on the expected effect of horse grazing. Do you expect grazing to benefit specific groups of plants (e.g. in relation to table 5 and 6). And at what time-scale are you expecting to observe a change? Is it reasonable to expect a change in plant species composition in ungrazed areas after only 1-2 years of exclosure? Please add some references on other studies that justifies this.

Methods:
Line 68: Do you mean the growing season instead of vegetation period? And 205 days a year?

Line 88: Wasn’t the first year of the study 2008? (see line 65)

Line 90: 200 mm higher than the year before or than average?

Line 91: 20-35 horses since 2004 – but table 1 only shows stocking rates of 2008-2010.

Line 100: Why are the horses fed during winter? Does the fenced area not hold enough food compared to the number of horses? Can you give some details on the stocking rate compared to other National parks with year-round horse grazing? Can you add a description of how horses are grazing in the area? Are they mostly foraging in the meadows or do they also find food in the forests?

Line 94-102: Does the vegetation in the different areas with different soil types differ accordingly?

Line 102: Can you please add your thoughts on the density of wild animals and their effect on the vegetation compared to the effect of horse grazing? Is the effect expected to be the same in all study areas?

Line 114: Can you add a bit more details on the fodder value score, please?

Line 115: Maybe the following reference can be used to support the use of Ellenberg values as indicator for habitat conditions: Diekmann, M. 2003. Species indicator values as an important tool in applied plant ecology - a review. Basic and Applied Ecology 4:493-506.

Line 132: Can you add a reference for the Weber method, please? At what time of year were the measurements of sward height taken?

Line 137: At what time of year were the harvesting done?

Line 145: Can you please add some details on the Ward method? Which program was used for the clustering analysis?

Results
Line 154-156: maybe this belongs to the introduction or discussion? Can you add a reference for line 154? Where was the research done? In the same area or?

Line 184: Please elaborate – what do you mean by poor fodder value? What is the possible range of the fodder value?

Line 187-188: Did you expect a difference in Ellenberg L, T and K values? Maybe reflect on the hypotheses – do the environmental conditions in the areas differ? And do you expect that to be reflected in the plant communities? Then you can add the hypotheses to the introduction.

Line 199: nationally protected or red listed plant species or? Please elaborate.

 

Line 249-250: Maybe elaborate on the lack of effect on percentage share of plant groups in the discussion – could it be due to the short period of grazing exclosure? 

Discussion

Line 276: Can you elaborate on 'stability of meadows' - what do you mean by stability?

Line 287-308: Could you add more references on this – a lot of studies assess the difference between mowing and grazing and the effect on vegetation in fens. Mowing is not only positive – e.g. mowing destroys the microtopograhy, creates homogenous vegetation etc… (see suggestions for references below)

Line 302-303: Encroachment due to lack of mowing - isn't that okay? Maybe some sort of equilibrium will occur in time if grazing density was increased and mowing skipped - where a mosaic of habitat types (open, encroached, forested) is maintained by natural processes (e.g. natural hydrology)?
References:

Maybe the following references could be of interest:

Fløjgaard, C., A. K. Brunbjerg, D. K. Andersen, L. Dalby, L. J. Lehmann, H. H. Bruun, and R. Ejrnæs. 2022. Nibble, cut, stomp and burn: Biodiversity effects of disturbances in fen grassland. Applied Vegetation Science 25:e12666.

Joyce, C.B. (2014) Ecological consequences and restoration potential of abandoned wet grasslands. Ecological Engineering, 66, 91–102.

Kołos, A., & Banaszuk, P. (2013). Mowing as a tool for wet meadows restoration: Effect of long-term

management on species richness and composition of sedge-dominated wetland. Ecological Engineering, 55, 23–28.

Kołos, A., & Banaszuk, P. (2018). Mowing may bring about vegetation change, but its effect is strongly modified by hydrological factors. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 26, 879–892.

Kotowski, W., Jabłońska, E. & Bartoszuk, H. (2013) Conservation management in fens: Do large tracked mowers impact functional plant diversity? Biological Conservation, 167, 292–297.

Middleton, B. (2016) Cattle grazing in Wetlands. In: Finlayson, C.M., Everard, M., Irvine, K., McInnes, R.J., Middleton, B.A., van Dam, A.A. & Davidson, N.C. (Eds.) The Wetland book: I: Structure and function, management and methods. Netherlands, Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 1–6.

Sand-Jensen, K., Jørgensen, H. & Larsen, J.R. (2019) Long-term influence of hay-cutting on plant species richness, biodiversity and soil fertility in a Danish fen. Ecological Engineering, 134, 93–100.

Seer, F.K. & Schrautzer, J. (2014) Status, future prospects, and management recommendations for alkaline fens in an agricultural landscape: A comprehensive survey. Journal for Nature Conservation, 22, 358–368.

Stammel, B., Kiehl, K. & Pfadenhauer, J. (2003) Alternative management on fens: Response of vegetation to grazing and mowing. Applied Vegetation Science, 6, 245–254

 

Tables
Table 2: Why is the first row (1. Northern meadow…) in bold?

Figures

Figure 1: line 77: Right corner instead of left corner

Figure 2: Why is data from 2008 missing? Is it not relevant if the study was conducted in the period 2008-2010?

Figure 4: are the Ellenberg values weighted according to abundance?

Figure 5: What do the stars indicate? Please add line 226-228 to figure text instead.
Appendix AI: Some of the numbers are in bold – what does that mean? And what about the roman numbers? Please explain the table text.

Author Response

Thank you for all your remarkable comments and remarks. We have incorporated them in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has made changes to the relevant content. 

Reviewer 2 Report

I think the manuscript has been sufficiently improved and can be published in this journal.