Estimation of Water Consumption of Haloxylon ammodendron Sand-Fixing Forest in Minqin Oasis-Desert Ecotone of China Based on Leaf Index, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

I have revised the paper in the previouf form, and now the MS is noticeably improved.I have no further comments.

Author Response

Dear Editor,

Thanks a lot for having reviewed our manuscript (forests-2713461).

I greatly appreciate both your help and that of the referees concerning improvement to this paper. We hope that that the revised version of the manuscript is now acceptable for publication in your journal.

We would like to express our sincere thanks again to you for the constructive and positive comments.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Yuquan Qiang

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Thank you for working on the paper again, but the results are not convincing. The language still remains very difficult to understand (it is not a question of grammar, but the formulation of ideas and expressions. 

I wrote you before that the name of the species H. ammodendron is mentioned 119 times, in this new version it is 109 times. This is no change practically. 

The word combination "assimilated branch" or "assimilated branches" is mentioned 101 times throughout the text. This is again not something acceptable for scientific text. 

I wrote before that this phrase: "The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stands is obtained by multiplying the surface area of assimilation branches per unit area by the surface area specific conductivity of standard wood assimilation branches"

it was rewrote to "The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stand was obtained by multiplying the surface area of the assimilated branches of a single H. ammodendron plant per unit area by the coefficient of proportionality of the surface area of the assimilated branches of standard wood" but it still does not make any sense. 

Please in your own interest try to write as understandable as possible (means simpler form) so that future readers can understand and cite the work. 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer

Response to report:

Thank you most sincerely for revise and comment to our manuscript (forests-2713461). In accordance with your suggestion, we have replaced the terms' H. ammodendron 'and' assimilated branch 'with abbreviations throughout the entire text. And further corrections have been made to the expression of the test method.

Comment 1:

I wrote you before that the name of the species H. ammodendron is mentioned 119 times, in this new version it is 109 times. This is no change practically.

The word combination "assimilated branch" or "assimilated branches" is mentioned 101 times throughout the text. This is again not something acceptable for scientific text.

Response:
Thank you for the valuable advice. I am very sorry for not being able to make the necessary changes as requested in the first revision. In the entire text, we use H_a to represent the H. ammodendron, A_b to represent the assimilated branches, and make notes in the abstract section. Please refer to the attachment below for the details of the modifications mentioned.

Comment 2:

I wrote before that this phrase: "The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stands is obtained by multiplying the surface area of assimilation branches per unit area by the surface area specific conductivity of standard wood assimilation branches"

it was rewrote to "The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stand was obtained by multiplying the surface area of the assimilated branches of a single H. ammodendron plant per unit area by the coefficient of proportionality of the surface area of the assimilated branches of standard wood" but it still does not make any sense.

Please in your own interest try to write as understandable as possible (means simpler form) so that future readers can understand and cite the work.

Response:
We appreciate for your insight advice. Based on your suggestions, we have made changes to this section. The specific changes are as follows:

Line 251 to 256: ‘The ratio of water consumption per plant of standard wood to the surface area of its assimilated branches was used to derive the coefficient of proportionality between water consumption per plant and the surface area of its assimilated branches; similarly, the ratio of water consumption per plant of standard wood to the dry weight of its assimilated branches was used to derive the coefficient of proportionality between water consumption per plant and the dry weight of its assimilated branches.’ was changed to ‘Using formula (9), based on the measured values of Qs using a stem flow meter, the proportional relationship between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As, and finally the proportional coefficient between the water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight of A_b is obtained.’

Line 289 to 295: ‘The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stand was obtained by multiplying the surface area of the assimilated branches of a single H. ammodendron plant per unit area by the coefficient of proportionality of the surface area of the assimilated branches of standard wood. Similarly, the water consumption per unit area of an H. ammodendron stand was obtained by multiplying the dry weight of the assimilated branches of an H. ammodendron plant per unit area by the coefficient of proportionality of the dry weight of the assimilated branches of a standard wood.’ was changed to ‘Formula (9) obtained the linear proportional relationship between As (surface area or trunk weight of A_b of standard wood) and monthly water consumption Qs of standard wood. The value of assimilating branch surface area or trunk weight per unit area of H_a forest was calculated using formula (12), and was substituted into formula (9). Based on the known As and proportion coefficient, the monthly water consumption Qs of H_a per unit area was calculated based on the linear proportional relationship.’

Please refer to the attachment on the next page for specific modifications

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Dear authors

thank you for your effort to change the text, but changing H. ammodendron to Ha is not really the way of changing the formulation of the text. 

The way to do so is: H. ammodendron is important plant. >>It<< can resist high temperatures. 

NOT: H. a is important plant. H.a can resist high temperatures. 

The same comment again for the ratio calculation: 

This time you say:

‘Using formula (9), based on the measured values of Qs using a stem flow meter, the proportional relationship between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As, and finally the proportional coefficient between the water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight of Ab is obtained.’

OK I think we are getting forward, but still this is not understandable (if not for me, it will not be for many other people). 

"Relationship  between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As."

Substituting by what?? 

"water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight"

please explain what is: standard tree? Is there any non standard tree?

Also again:  "water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight"

This expression makes no sense. so what is consuming the water? Standard tree and surface area and trunk weight? 

Sorry but this looks really total mess of words. 

I think we are getting closer, but still the texting needs better improvements. 

Author Response

 Dear Editor,

Thanks a lot for having reviewed our manuscript (forests-2713461). Thank you for your suggestion, I believe that under your suggestion, the article manuscript will be more understandable and excellent. Based on your suggestions, we have made changes to the content of the manuscript. The revisions have been highlighted in the revised manuscript.

I greatly appreciate both your help and that of the referees concerning improvement to this paper. Below you can find point-to-point responses to Reviewers’ comments. We hope that that the revised version of the manuscript is now acceptable for publication in your journal.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

We would like to express our sincere thanks again to you for the constructive and positive comments.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Yuquan Qiang

Response to Reviewer

Response to report:

Thank you most sincerely for revise and comment to our manuscript (forests-2713461). According to your suggestion, we have further modified the expression method of Haloxylon ammodendron. The meaning of standard tree and standard branch is supplemented in 2.2. Study areas and sample selection.

Comment 1:

thank you for your effort to change the text, but changing H. ammodendron to Ha is not really the way of changing the formulation of the text.

The way to do so is: H. ammodendron is important plant. >>It<< can resist high temperatures.

NOT: H. a is important plant. H.a can resist high temperatures

Response:
Thank you for the valuable advice. I 'm sorry I didn 't understand your meaning in the last revision. According to your suggestion, in this modification, we use its, this plant, etc.to represent the Haloxylon ammodendron, and delete unnecessary representations. See the attached manuscripts with traces of modification for details.

Comment 2:

The same comment again for the ratio calculation:

This time you say:

‘Using formula (9), based on the measured values of Qs using a stem flow meter, the proportional relationship between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As, and finally the proportional coefficient between the water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight of Ab is obtained.’

OK I think we are getting forward, but still this is not understandable (if not for me, it will not be for many other people).

"Relationship  between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As."

Substituting by what??

Response:
We appreciate for your insight advice. Based on your suggestions, we have made changes to this section. The specific changes are as follows:

Line 251 to 260: ‘Using formula (9), based on the measured values of Qs using a stem flow meter, the proportional relationship between Qs and As is derived by substituting the measured values of As, and finally the proportional coefficient between the water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight of Ab is obtained.’ was changed to ‘In Equation ( 9), using the measured values of the monthly water consumption of the standard wood and the surface area of the Ab of the standard wood in the same month, the values of the proportional coefficients a and b of the water consumption of the standard wood and the surface area of the Ab were obtained by linear fitting. Similarly, using the measured values of the monthly water consumption of the standard wood and the Ab dry weight in the same month, the values of the proportional coefficients a and b of the water consumption of the standard wood and the Ab dry weight were obtained by linear fitting. Therefore, after the measured As (Ab surface area or Ab dry weight) is obtained, the water consumption of the standard wood can be simulated by substituting it into the formula (9).’

Comment 3:

"water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight"

please explain what is: standard tree? Is there any non standard tree?

Also again:  "water consumption of a standard tree and the surface area and trunk weight"

This expression makes no sense. so what is consuming the water? Standard tree and surface area and trunk weight?

Response:

We are very grateful for your valuable advice. The meaning of standard tree and standard branch is supplemented in 2.2. Study areas and sample selection. Specific modifications are as follows:

Line 152 to 159: ‘We conducted a survey of the Ha stand, calculated the distribution of the diameter and frequency of the Ha forest, and selected 4 standard trees for monitoring the plant’s stem sap flow.’ was changed to ‘We investigated its stand and counted the frequency and distribution of the ground diameter of the stand. In each forest age, the four trees with the highest ground diameter frequency and the most widely distributed in the sample were used as standard trees to monitor the stem sap flow of the plant. The branches of the standard tree are used as standard branches to represent the entire stand.’

Please refer to the attachment on the next page for specific modifications.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I have no idea what "assimilated branch" means!  The language is not comprehensible in many places.  I would be willing to review this once the language has been improved.

I have no idea what "assimilated branch" means!  The language is not comprehensible in many places.  I would be willing to review this once the language has been improved.

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have evaluated the water uptake by a desert forest  species typical of China. The study is interesting and well conceived. The methods are suitable for the study aims and the results are clearly presented. However, I have found the discussion quite poor, since it lacks cross-comparisons with relevant literature. Some other considerations are reported in the commented MS in attachment.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Aòthough I am not a native speaker, I think that English is quite ggod, but it deserves a careful check to remove typos and improve style.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper describes very interesting work on mensuration of water consumption based on assimilated growth of branches. The idea and the design is good in my opinion, the data are very interesting, though the presentation is very difficult to read and very complexely written which would really make it hard for readers to understand. I would recommend the text rewritten into simpler phrases with a clearer message. Also please try to diminuish repetition of words the name of the tree H. ammodendron is mentioned 119 times in the 10 pages of the text... this is too much. 

- in Methods rows starting from row 136 to 148 verbs are used only as commands. (Select plots, connect probe. ...) please rewrite to: "Plots were selected etc. .."

In rows 264 onwards is a key explanation of water consumption: "The water consumption per unit area of H. ammodendron stands is obtained by multiplying the surface area of assimilation branches per unit area by the surface area specific conductivity of standard wood assimilation branches." 

I read this phrase 10 times and still no idea what does it mean.

Please rewrite this part clearly and understandably, also the rest of the paper especially results and conclusion.  

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