Dear Editors and Reviewers,
Thank you for your letter and comments on our manuscript titled “Temporal variability in soil moisture after thinning in mi-arid Picea crassifolia plantations in northwestern China” (FORECO_2017_459). The comments helped us improve our manuscript, and provided important guidance for future rearch.
We have addresd the editor’s and the reviewers’ comments to the best of our abilities, and revid text to meet the Forest Ecology and Management style requirements. We hope this meets your requirements for a publication.产前征兆
We marked the revid portions in red and highlighted them yellow in the manuscript. The main comments and our specific respons are detailed below:
Editor:
Plea explain how the results in this paper are significantly different from tho in Zhu, X., He, Z.B., Du, J., Yang, J.J., Chen, L.F., 2015. Effects of thinning on the soil moisture of the
Picea crassifolia plantation in Qilian Mountains. Forest Rearch. 28, 55–60.)
Respon: We apologize for our earlier lack of clarity about the differences between our study and tho in “Zhu, X., He, Z.B., Du, J., Yang, J.J., Chen, L.F., 2015. Effects of thinning on the soil moisture of the Picea crassifolia plantation in Qilian Mountains. Forest Rearch. 28, 55–60” (named “previous article” below). Specifically, we found three main differences in the temporal variability and hydrological respons of soil moisture between our study and the “previous article”.
First, the scope of data analysis and u were different: The “previous article” just applied the one growing ason data (from June 28th to October 25th 2013) from the natural forest and the plantations with no thinning and thinned in 20% intensity. In addition, the “previous article” also has not considered the effect of 40% thinning on the soil moisture of the Picea crassifolia plantation. However, in the prent study, we applied four years data (from June 27th 2012 to October 30th 2015 in HD and NF; from January 1th 2014 to October 29th 2015 in MD and LD) from the natural forest and the plantations with no thin
ning, thinned in 20%, and thinned in 40% intensity to analysis the temporal variability and hydrological respons of soil moisture in mi-arid 场字几画Picea crassifolia plantations in northwestern China.
Second, the content of the rearch was different: The “previous article” only considered the spatial and temporal dynamic changes of soil moisture, but did not involve the inter-annual, and asonal dynamic changes of the soil moisture. In the prent study, however, not only did we considered the effects of thinning on the spatial and temporal dynamic changes, the inter-annual changes, and asonal dynamic changes of the soil moisture; but we also considered the changes in soil hydrological respon after thinning. Our goals were to understand the changes in soil hydrological respon and soil moisture dynamics, and to determine whether thinning management can effectively improve the state of soil moisture in the subalpine 云的古诗Picea crassifolia plantations in the Qilian Mountains.
Third, the rearch purpo and the result were also different: The mainly purpo of the
“previous article” was to preliminary explore the thinning on the plantation forest soil moisture, and they found that the intermediate thinning can significantly increa soil moisture content at the depth of 60 cm. However, they didn’t point out that which or what the thinning intensity or plantation density can be benefit to sustainability of planted forests in the water-limited regions. In this study, not only we did confirmed that the intermediate thinning can significantly increa soil moisture content at the deep soil layer, but we also found that high planting density was the main cau of vere soil moisture deficits in the long-term, and it could be mitigated by 20 - 40% thinning (~3139 trees ha-1万里长城作文). In addition, by investigating the effect of thinning on the soil hydrological respon, we found that soil hydrological respon may be temporarily modified by thinning according to changes in canopy structure, precipitation properties, and antecedent soil moisture conditions. Soil moisture in natural forest rapidly infiltrated into deep soil, which greatly improved the efficiency of precipitation u. Thinning significantly incread the capacity for soil infiltration, and moderate thinning intensity may be conducive to deep soil-water recharge. Further, according to the global circulation predicti
on models and trend analysis results and weather patterns, deep VSWC may increa if precipitation patterns shift to produce larger but less frequent rainfall events during the growing ason, and this change will benefit growth of the vegetation planted at higher density in this mi-arid region.
Reviewer 1
I found the topic very interesting. The scientific (experimental) t-up is valid and the data is prented clearly, and analyzed in detail. My detailed comments are all in the attached pdf-file.
Respon: Thank you for your encouraging remarks and valuable comments. We corrected our text according to your comments submitted in the attached pdf-file. Our respons to your comments are as follows:
Comments in attached pdf-file
1. Keywords: maybe re-consider “Rainfall”
Respon: We fully agree that it is necessary to re-consider “Rainfall” in the Keywords ction. In addition, the statement of “Rainfall” was corrected as “Soil hydrological respon什么是企业管理” (L31).
2. Ln. 37: Expand, i.e. why are the specific regions water-limited.
Respon: 听评课记录We apologize for our earlier lack of clarity. To increa clarity, we have re-written this ntence accordingly, and we have corrected “Grassland afforestation is critical in efforts to prevent wide-spread land degradation in arid and mi-arid regions of China (Chen et al., 2008a; Yang et al., 2014). However, sustainability of planted forests is verely limited by soil moisture conditions. Soil moisture is fundamental to sustainability in water-limited ecosystems (Newman et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2014).” as “Grassland afforestation is critical in efforts to prevent wide-spread land degradation in arid and mi-arid regions of China (Chen et al., 2008a; Yang et al., 2014), where rainfall is the main source of soil moisture, and where many vegetation restoration projects were implemented (Li, 2004). However, soil moisture is the most crucial factor to sustainability
of planted forests in the water-limited ecosystems (Newman et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2014). (L35-40)”.
3. Ln. 47: What is meant by “statistical moments of soil moisture, such as mean and variance”?
Respon: It is meant that changes to canopy structure due to large-scale clearings or intermediate disturbance events may lead to changes in the mean and the variance of the soil moisture. We amended our text to clarify, and now it reads: “Changes to forest canopy structure due to large-scale harvesting may lead to changes in soil properties, residual tree growth, and the mean and the variance of the soil moisture (Chen et al., 1993; Olchev et al., 2009; He et al., 2013; Kaarakka et al., 2014).” (L48-51).
4. Ln. 60: add “ecosystems” (instead of cosystem)
Respon: The statement of “cosystem” was corrected as “ecosystems” (L62).
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5. Ln. 68: change “determining” to “affecting”
Respon: The statement of “determining” was corrected as “affecting” (L71提升能力).
