Dynamic Evolution and Quantitative Attribution of Soil Erosion Based on Slope Units: A Case Study of a Karst Plateau-Gorge Area in SW China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
See attached file
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your comments. We have carefully studied the review comments and have made comprehensive changes and improvements in response to them. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Editor/Authors,
I have read the manuscript land-1789177 entitled “Dynamic evolution and quantitative attribution of soil erosion based on slope units: a case study of a karst plateau-gorge area” written by Shen et collab., and submitted for publication to Land Journal. The paper is well written and it is address a current issue regarding soil erosion in karst area. The authors use slope units, RUSLE and geographical detector as methods, and the results have a scientific value. Probably some recommendations to the end-users in the final part of the paper would make the paper much more applicable. Some inconsistencies are highlighted in the pdf file attached.
Congratulation the very good work!
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your comments. We have carefully studied the review comments and have made comprehensive changes and improvements in response to them. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Please see the attachment
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for your comments. We have carefully studied the review comments and have made comprehensive changes and improvements in response to them. Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors did a great job of writing the article and correcting my comments. The article is suitable for publication in its present form.
Author Response
Dear Academic Editor: Thank you very much for your diligent review of this paper and for allowing us to revise the manuscript. The comments have been very helpful in revising and improving the paper and have provided important guidance for our research. We have carefully studied the review comments and have made comprehensive changes and improvements in response to them. First, would like to thank the editor for his comments. In response to the query about soil erosion and vegetation cover, we offer the following explanation. In general, soil erosion and vegetation cover(FVC) are negatively correlated. But in the research region, there was severe rocky desertification in this study area, with large areas of rock outcrops at one time. The severe karst rock desertification has resulted in no soil being eroded. As the vegetation cover increases, the soil thickness increases, and the risk of soil erosion increases. Secondly, we extracted an average value for the whole unit based on the slope unit. In our study area, the high cover of vegetation coexists with high slope gradients. And the results show that slope is the main influencing factor for soil erosion. The effect of a slope is much greater than the effect of FVC, which leads to an increased risk of soil erosion with increasing vegetation cover. Secondly, we have improved some of the diagrams and wording. We have revised elements such as the scale, legend, and north arrow so that all maps have a consistent display. And some words and references in the text have been improved. We have tried our best to make our statement clearer and more concise throughout the text. We hope that this revision will be approved. We would like to thank the experts and editors for their great efforts in guiding our research. Thank you for your kindness.