Soil Diversity of the Island of Gogland in the Gulf of Finland: History of Land Development and Current Status

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Without a doubt, it is essential to point out the importance of the conservation of Gogland through the characterization of its soils. However, in the introduction and in the discussion, the ecosystem services that would be maintained by conserving the island could be highlighted even more. They are mentioned in a general way. They could delve deeper into them, how much it represents economically, something related to current biodiversity (An example of the endangered plants found there?), or what are the historical sites specifically and highlight the relationship of soil types with these services.

In general, the descriptions of the figures are scarce and could be improved. 

There are sentences in which ambiguous words are used. For example line 299-230, where "few" are used. "few" can be replaced by the percentage or specific data of the km that the area comprises.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

I would like to thank you for making an important contribution to increasing protected areas of the world with this work.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

This is a good paper that research the soil diversity of the Gogland island. It’s significant to protect the soil diversity. And the soil map of the Gogland island was carried out. However, some spots could be improved int this paper. The spell of “PHH2O” should keep consistent, for example, in the line 311 and line 421, the spell of “PHH2O” are different.

 

The describe or analysis should be added about Figure 7.

 

Author Response

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Reviewer 5 Report

The reviewed paper is dedicated to study  of soil diversity of the Gogland island in the Gulf of Finland. The presented results are very important and interesting to readers. The manuscript is well illustrated and very clear. But for publication in the journal “Soil Ecosystems” the authors should correct some important points.

1. Add reference to Introduction (first and second paragraphs), Materials and Methods (first paragraph)

2. Lines 116-120 (Literature data analysis): Delete this paragraph. Every researcher is looking for literature, but no one includes it in materials and methods.

3. Figures 3-6: The photo needs to be centered.

4. Figure 6: What is shown in the first and second photos?

5. Line 308: This sentence should be moved to the previous paragraph.

 

6. I think, that it is better to exclude the section 3.4. Ecosystem services of the Gogland island. It is only declarations, which are not based on study of Gogland island soils. Otherwise, the manuscript is a strange mixture of scientific research and declarative statements. Accordingly, the phrase "ecosystem services" should be excluded from the title of the paper and from the goals of the study.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 5 Report

The authors corrected the paper in accordance with the comments and explained the section about ecosystem services.

 

I can recommend the MS for publication in journal “Soil ecosystems”.