Responses of Net Anthropogenic N Inputs and Export Fluxes in the Megacity of Chengdu, China
, Chengyue Lai 2, Qing Shi 2, Lili Ouyang 2, Zhaoli Wang 2, Gang Yao 1,3 and Binyang Jia 4,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
- The English are need to revise/edit in many sentences, e.g in line 41 "reached 77% " should written as " reached to a total of 77% " ; line 196 "between 1970- 2010" should written as "between 1970 and 2010" ; etc. There are many Chinese English written in the text, therefore Professional english proof reading and revision are necessary.
- Should add A list of all abbreviation word at the end of text.
- Brief Figure legend for all Figures are required to add into the Figures after the Figure title.
Author Response
Open Review
Yao Ding et al examined responses of net anthropogenic N inputs, N output fluxes in Chengdu. It can cause the readers' interest and it also has interesting results. I suggest this paper be published after several modifications.
Major suggestions:
Introduction: Why Chengdu? There are a lot of other large cities (like Beijing and Shanghai) in China. Why nitrate? There are a lot of important pollutants in China (like heavy metals, phosphate, and so on). Is that because Chengdu suffered from nitrate pollution heavily? Or another reason? The authors should briefly explain Chengdu and nitrate.
Response：The Yangtze River is considered the birthplace of Chinese civilization and is a strategic economic development area in China. As the furthest upstream megacity in the Yangtze River Basin, Chengdu City water pollution directly impacts economic development and water quality in the Yangtze River’s lower reaches. Excess nitrate in surface water affects both water quality and human health. The study is particularly important, because decision makers in most Chinese cities disregard nitrate pollution; and are therefore unable to propose appropriate control measures in the context of global nitrate pollution Of equal importance, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in Chengdu has significantly decreased in recent years, while the concentration of nitrate nitrogen has steadily increased (Fig.4). In our preliminary study, we found that the nitrate concentration in the surface water of Chengdu was higher than that of its neighboring cities, so nitrate pollution needs to be addressed.
Line 344-345: Actually I doubt the prediction. For example, the TN export prediction are fluctuating. Normally, the trend only goes down (e.g., population decrease) or goes up. The authors may check and give a clear explanation.
Response： TN export fluxes from 2011 to 2019 were the measured value (green dots). Because its value was mainly controlled by runoff, the runoff value was given more weight in model prediction. Therefore, the predicted curve at the TN export fluxes was consistent with the runoff change, and this result was consistent with the actual empirical measurements. Granted, it is understood that there was a margin of error, as a deficit in earlier flow data prevented more correction formulas from being used. But overall, the results were consistent with current trends, and the predictions were meaningful.
Minor suggestions:
Line 39-41: This paper is working on water or the environment. Please do not cover a lot in an economic situation like GDP.
Response：Thank you for this excellent suggestion. I moved this GDP reference to the study area (Section 2.1).
Line 83-84, Line 269-270, Line 344-345: Please make the fonts in Figure 1, Figure 7, and Figure 8 larger if possible. Larger fonts will help the audience with reading.
Response：Thank you for the recommendation. I enlarged the fonts as suggested.
Line 188-189, Line 212-213: The data were from 1970. The data in 1970 were very old and showed quite different values, comparing to 2019. The authors may have to present the data source or say how to estimate clearly.
05 November 2021
Date of this review
24 Nov 2021 11:14:38
Reviewer 2 Report
Yao Ding et al examined responses of net anthropogenic N inputs, N output fluxes in Chengdu. It can cause the readers' interest and it also has interesting results. I suggest this paper be published after several modifications.
Major suggestions:
Introduction: Why Chengdu? There are a lot of other large cities (like Beijing and Shanghai) in China. Why nitrate? There are a lot of important pollutants in China (like heavy metals, phosphate, and so on). Is that because Chengdu suffered from nitrate pollution heavily? Or another reason? The authors should briefly explain Chengdu and nitrate.
Line 344-345: Actually I doubt the prediction. For example, the TN export prediction are fluctuating. Normally, the trend only goes down (e.g., population decrease) or goes up. The authors may check and give a clear explanation.
Minor suggestions:
Line 39-41: This paper is working on water or the environment. Please do not cover a lot in an economic situation like GDP.
Line 83-84, Line 269-270, Line 344-345: Please make the fonts in Figure 1, Figure 7, and Figure 8 larger if possible. Larger fonts will help the audience with reading.
Line 188-189, Line 212-213: The data were from 1970. The data in 1970 were very old and showed quite different values, comparing to 2019. The authors may have to present the data source or say how to estimate clearly.
Author Response
Open Review
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
- The English are need to revise/edit in many sentences, e.g in line 41 "reached 77% " should written as " reached to a total of 77% " ; line 196 "between 1970- 2010" should written as "between 1970 and 2010" ; etc. There are many Chinese English written in the text, therefore Professional english proof reading and revision are necessary.
Response：Thank you for this recommendation. The manuscript has been reviewed and revised by a professional technical writing company.
- Should add A list of all abbreviation word at the end of text.
Response：As suggested, I added a list abbreviations the end of text.
- Brief Figure legend for all Figures are required to add into the Figures after the Figure title.
Response：Thank you for pointing this out. I modified the picture as suggested.
Submission Date
05 November 2021
Date of this review
28 Nov 2021 14:38:35
