Enhanced Assessment of Water Quality and Pollutant Source Apportionment Using APCS-MLR and PMF Models in the Upper Reaches of the Tarim River

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The comments and suggestions for the authors are presented in the attached pdf file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The quality of the English language is largely good except in some few places where there is need to revisit the write up as guided in the submitted review report.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see my attached file 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor English editing should be considered for this manuscript. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a rather interesting contribution, since it concerns massive evaluation of numerous physical-chemical parameters (including fertilizers, pesticides, suage, etc.) in a very local portion a Chinese river. 

 

The amount of data makes this paper suitable for publication, however ia few changes and text restructuring are needed:

 

1) despite the complex attempted explanations in the Introduction, it is not clear why Authors decided to use one-way ANOVAs, despite the high risk of incurring in commission-type statistical errors. This point needs to be much better clarified.

 

2) the measurements concern a particular freshwater ecosystem. It is very important to better characterize it especially by comparing the ecology and eco-toxixology this river with other rivers, both in China and in other idro-geographical basins around the world. Rivers with a similar length, deepness, etc. should be preferred.

 

3) a summary indication about the most relevant global guidelines regulating the presence of river pollutants should be added, either in the Introduction and/or in the Discussion. Or among Conclusions: this may render the paper more attractive for an ampler readership.

 

 

 

SPECIFIC POINTS:

 

 

Introduction

 

Lines 52-56

Multivariate statistical techniques offer distinct advantages in interpreting extensive and complex water quality datasets. They are widely used to evaluate spatial-temporal variations in water quality and to identify sources of water pollution, employing methods such as cluster analysis (CA), factor analysis (FA), and principal component analysis (PCA) [7-10]. 

 

As already reported before, this section does not provide a logical link with the statistics actually applied in the present data analysis.

 

 

Materials and methods

Lines 87-88

Due to the combined effects of evaporation, concentration, and 87 rock weathering, the surface water in this region exhibits a complex ion composition. 

For many potential readers, such a statement may result rather unclear.

 

Results and discussion, Table 3

Line 259

during the dry season to occasionally fall to Category IV. This results in the monitored 

Is such a dry season precisely circannual? Was it occurring in at least 90% of the last 30 years? Are climate changes caused by global warming affecting its periodicity, length, etc?

 

 

3.3.2, line 374

…fluorine-containing pesticides are the main sources of fluoride in surface water 

For many potential readers, such a terminology may result rather unclear.

 

Table 6

Lines 500-502

…with chemical agents being the primary type of pesticides used. The application of fertilizer, organic fertilizer, and pesticide 

Such a statement may result difficult to disentangle.

 

Conclusion

Lines 652-656

The source analysis results of APCS-MLR and PMF exhibit a high degree of similarity, leading to the identification of six potential pollution sources in the upper reaches of Tarim River. Among these sources, soil weathering, livestock and poultry breeding, and agricultural activities demonstrate higher contribution rates. 

Such a paragraph is definitely crucial. It needs to be expanded. The various factors should be better characterized: one by one. 

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Please see my comment in the attached file. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf