Effects of Precious Tree Introduction into Moso Bamboo Forests on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Pools
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In paper entitled ‘’ Effects of Precious Tree Introduction in Moso Bamboo Forests on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen pools ’’, authors tried to investigating in soil C and N changes affected by planting precious tree species in moso bamboo forest. Totally, the manuscript is well structured BUT definitely needs to more deep review and figuring out. Introduction needs to be extend. Materials and methods are fine. There are some confusing reports in results that need to be clear (please see comments and highlights into the text). Discussion needs to be more extend.
Please see comments
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
- Table 1, DBH. Please define it in caption.
Response: done.
- How you separated litters from soil particles? soil particles didn't affect on measured weight? please explain it here clearly.
Response: Thanks for your advice. Before soil sampling, the surface litters (1 m × 1 m) in the standard plots were collected, and the soil particles and stones were removed artificially. Then, the litters were dried at 70 ℃ to a constant weight for the determination of biomass
- Section 3.1. It seems there is not significant difference between them. BF got sign ''b'', it's ok, BUT error bars in BF and BTW crossed each other that shows no significant diffidence between these two means! Please see highlighted signs
Response: Thanks for your advice. We reanalyzed the date and prepared the figures.
- Fig.1. Please remove ''.'' from unit, it's NOT correct. Just write ''g kg-1''. Check it all across the text.
Response: done.
- Section 3.3.This claim seems alright, but columns got different signs, that is in opposite of this sentence! Please see highlighted signs.
Response: It is our negligence and we are sorry about this. We reanalyzed the date and corrected it in the Revised manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.doc
Reviewer 2 Report
Zhao 32660901 ж Forests до 21.11.2022
https://susy.mdpi.com/user/review/review/32660901/Uqcb2WHC
Authors
The area of moso bamboo forest is large in China, which occupies 4.68 million ha, Therefore, the study of bamboo forests is important.
To improve the article, you need do the following additions:
Expand your Abstract and Conclusions:
1. To Write the age of the forests. that in these forests about 50% were trees 1-2 years old, 2-4 years old; 5-6l -?
2. What is the percentage of Phoebe and Taxus impurities in the bamboo forest
3. All properties were determined by soil layers -0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm in triplicate.
4. in a mixed forest area. where did you take samples were different trees or one of their species?
2. Material and methods. It is necessary to characterize the objects in more details. Add the same details, as written for abstract
1. Discussion Unclear: “The initial properties of soil (depth of 0–60 cm) with concentrations in the transition zone (What is this zone?) were significantly higher than that of moso bamboo forest [35,36], which
The site has a steep slope of 23°–27°. and this leads to a strong variability in the content of the studied parameters. and may be 5 replicates are not enough for statistically significant values
About half of the area is forests aged 1-2 years, and they have little impact on soil properties.
In which forest were the maximum values of the studied indicators ?
Table 1.. Write all the data up to tenths
The article can be published after making additional data and correcting
Sincerely yours
Author Response
- To Write the age of the forests. that in these forests about 50% were trees 1-2 years old, 2-4 years old; 5-6l -?
Response: The moso bamboo forests regenerate naturally. As a typical clonal plant, moso bamboo forest is an uneven aged forest, and a certain age structure should be maintained for the high yield of bamboo forests. Therefore, new bamboos are retained and old bamboos are cut down in bamboo forest management.
- What is the percentage of Phoebe and Taxus impurities in the bamboo forest.
Response: In this study, two years old seedlings were planted, and the spacing in the rows was 5 m × 5 m. That is to say, 400 precious trees were planted in one hectare of moso bamboo forest. Combined with the density of moso bamboo forest, the percentage of precious trees is about 21%.
- All properties were determined by soil layers -0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm in triplicate.
Response: In this study, we established three standard plots (20 m × 20 m) in each forest type and selected five sampling points in each standard plot. Each sampling points was separated into 20–cm depth increments, and total 15 replicates were collected.
- in a mixed forest area. where did you take samples were different trees or one of their species?
Response: In this study, samples were collected randomly in both mixed forest and pure bamboo forest.
- Material and methods. It is necessary to characterize the objects in more details. Add the same details, as written for abstract.
Response: Thank you for your good advice. We corrected it in the Revised manuscript.
- Discussion Unclear: “The initial properties of soil (depth of 0–60 cm) with concentrations in the transition zone (What is this zone?) were significantly higher than that of moso bamboo forest [35,36], which
Response: The transition zone was a mixed forest formed by native evergreen broadleaved forest and expanded moso bamboo.
- The site has a steep slope of 23°–27°. and this leads to a strong variability in the content of the studied parameters. and may be 5 replicates are not enough for statistically significant values.
Response: It is our negligence and we are sorry about this. We corrected it in the Revised manuscript. In October 2020, we established three standard plots (20 m × 20 m) in each forest type. Soil samples were collected using a soil sampler (5 cm in diameter) from the 0–60 cm soil layer at five random points in each standard plot and separated into 20–cm depth increments. Therefore, 15 replicates were used for statistically significant values.
- About half of the area is forests aged 1-2 years, and they have little impact on soil properties.
Response: Moso bamboo forest is an uneven aged forest, and a certain age structure should be maintained for the high yield of bamboo forests. Therefore, new bamboos are retained and old bamboos are cut down in bamboo forest management.
- In which forest were the maximum values of the studied indicators?
Response: In our study, the maximum values of SOC and N were in BPC, while no significant difference was found between BPC and BTW.
- Table 1. Write all the data up to tenths.
Response: done.
Author Response File: Author Response.doc
