Climate Change Characteristics of Typical Grassland in the Mongolian Plateau from 1978 to 2020

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript devoted to investigations of present climate and ongoing climate changes at the Inner Mongolian Plateau. The methods are well described and include a set of instruments for analysis of changes (linear trend analysis and Mann-Kendall mutation test), variation (cumulative anomaly analysis) and periodicity (wavelet analysis). Temporal and spatial variations of the climatic characteristics are demonstrated in the results section. Analysis of spatial-temporal structure of meteorological characteristics is highly important for understanding of mechanisms and causes of climatic changes.

Some important corrections should be made before the manuscript publication.

Section 3 describes temporal variations of climatic characteristics. Figure 2 shows interannual variations of characteristics. Please, describe how the values were obtained. Is it average for all weather stations or area averaged value or single weather station data?

Section 3.1.2. Authors claim that “According to the results of the two tests, it can be judged that the annual average temperature underwent a sudden change from low to high temperature during 1991-1992.” Figure 4b does not support this strict sentence. M-K test show that temperature rise starts since 1989 (UF become positive) and trend become significant in 2002 (UF above significance level). Cumulative anomaly chart show that the anomaly was negative before 1997, anomaly was about zero from 1989 to 1996, and then anomaly become mostly positive. There are no sudden changes, but gradual changes in temperature. The similar things exist for wind speed. I suggest to check the paper findings.

Minor comments

Abstract. “ a sudden change from low to high temperature occurred between 1991-1992;” Please, clarify the sentence. Between 1991-1992 means in 1991.

The same question for “between 1997-1998”

Figure 6 show spatial distribution and spatial variation characteristics over the study area. The first sentence in section 3.2.1. (Spatial variation of temperature). Claims that characteristics are valid for the typical grassland. I guess that precipitations and wind will be the same for urban areas, wetlands and other landscapers.

Section 3.2.3. Spatial variation of temperature – incorrect title. Should be section about wind speed.

I recommend to publish the manuscript after minor corrections. 

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

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Reviewer 3 Report

The article is serious, presents the results of the study in a classical way with an analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of climatic parameters for a certain period in a very interesting region. There are no significant comments and suggestions. The article is made at a high scientific level. As a small remark, it can be noted that you should not duplicate the words from the title of the article in the "keywords" block.

Author Response

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