Understanding the Relationship Between Water Quality and Soil Nutrient Dynamics in Qinghai Lake Through Statistical and Regression Models

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

For effective lake management, it is essential to understand how events in terrestrial ecosystems affect aquatic ecosystems. This is the primary goal of the authors of this manuscript. However, the manuscript requires significant revisions before it can be published and appeal to an international audience. In addition to improving the overall narrative throughout the document (as noted in the manuscript), it is crucial to include information about land use in the terrestrial environment surrounding the lake in the statistical models. This inclusion is crucial for determining whether nutrient inputs from the adjacent terrestrial environment genuinely impact water quality. Without this information, the content of the article remains largely speculative.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper presents the relationship between the values of water quality indicators from Qinghai Salt Lake and the soil. Although the article details how the measurements were carried out, the instruments and measurement methods used, the results of the measurements, and the correlations between indicators, it lacks an essential part of critical analysis and even the highlighting of the study's utility both in the present and in the future.

There is an inconsistency in the use of symbols (e.g., NO3--N at line 155 versus NO3-_N at line 227). Additionally, although symbols are defined in the text, the full names continue to appear (e.g., phosphorus at lines 57 and 68 is already defined in the abstract). Therefore, this aspect needs to be corrected. 

We suggest moving the text between line 82 and line 94 to chapter 2, section 2.1.

Section 2.1. must be numbered.

On line 109 instead of square kilometers km² and instead of meters above sea level - MASL.

On lines 177 and 122, we have written the same thing.

Lines 145-147 require citations.

Usually, the BOD5 figure 5 appears as a subscript.

On line 274, it should be specified who R2 is.

Additionally, the study has some errors that are highlighted below:

1. line 34 hu-man; 2. line 36 ap-proximately; 3. line 38 signifi-cance; 4. line 46 sub-se-quent; 5. line 50 eutrophica-tion; 6. line 53 ex-acer-bate; 7. line 80 ni-trogen; 8. line 83 hydrologi-cal; 9. line 133 am-monium.

Unfortunately, your manuscript does not contain enough deep discussion with already published works on similar topics from all over the world.

Author Response

please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Accept in the present form

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript has been improved and now contains enough deep discussion with already published works on similar topics from all over the world, which gives it credibility and robustness.