Two Centuries of Winter Temperature Variability Inferred from Betula ermanii Ring Widths near the Forests/Tundra Ecotone in the Changbai Mountain, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Two centuries of winter temperature variability inferred from Betula ermanii ring widths near the Forests / Tundra ecotone in the Changbai Mountain, China

[Forests] Manuscript ID: forests-2789069

         Dear authors,

I reviewed with great interest the manuscript entitled “Two centuries of winter temperature variability inferred from Betula ermanii ring widths near the Forests / Tundra ecotone in the Changbai Mountain, China”, submitted to the journal Forests.

The manuscript is well written and very easy to follow.

Here are the main comments:

In the abstract, the authors report that the study area is located in the transitional zone between forests and the tundra: this refers to an ecotone, while the title refers to a sampling area close to that zone of transition.

The use of the Standard chronology is not justified and the characteristics of the other series, especially the Residual chronology, are not provided. The AC1 value is not mentioned even for the STD series.

 In addition, the main findings of two last subsections of the Discussion (4.4 and 4.5) are not reported in the Results section.

 Specific comments are mentioned in the manuscript (pdf file).

         Happy and healthy New Year to everyone!...

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

The manuscript is well written.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Merits

The work is written coherently, the purpose of the work has been clearly defined and the answer to the set goal has been obtained. The whole text is characterized by a logical order and is readable. Typical dendrochronological methods were used, as well as recognized methods for climate reconstruction. There is a satisfactory level of detail in describing the tests performed.

The work is linked to a single local site, but the results are valuable and should be made available to the international community.

Suggestions

Table 4 would be more readable chronologically rather than by ranking, or the ranking number could be found in an additional column.

Caption in Figure 7. Please check if you are sure light/dark gray means warm/cold (?) or cold/warm.

The images are readable, but the quality could be better. This is especially true for Figures 4, 5, and 10.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

General remarks of the reviewer

Interesting research on the radial growth of Betula ermanii trees in the Changbai Mountain area in connection with long-term climate changes.

The following chapters requires some clarification:

Keywords

Use lowercase letters except for geographic and species.

1.Introduction

The impact of global warming on changes in species distribution, abundance and biomass [2-10] and the reconstruction of historical temperature variability around the world [20-31] should be analyzed in detail and not by referring to many publications at the same time.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study area and sample collection

Please explain why only one core was taken from 5 BE trees and from what directions (N, E, S, W) the samples were taken.

4. Discussion

4.1. Climate–growth relationships

Text fragment (lines 246-249):

“This mechanism of the effects of increased winter temperatures on the radial growth of trees in the previous year needs to be studied in more detail in order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between radial  growth and climate change”;

should take form:

This mechanism of the effects of increased winter temperatures in the previous year on the radial growth of trees  year needs to be studied in more detail in order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between radial growth and climate change.

Technical Notes

Logical errors should be eliminated in the text of the work.

Details in the attached manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf