The Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Potato Agrobiodiversity in the Highlands of Central Peru: A Case Study of Smallholder Management across Farming Landscapes

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Excellent paper and research

some request:

3.1 give more data and comments on land access

Figures 2a, 2b and 3A are not essential

Figure 6: not lisible

Author Response

3.1 give more data and comments on land access -In section “3.4.2. Cropping areas” this information is provided as household averages for total potato cropping areas per region. Added to Table 2 and removed from section 3.4.2. Succinct phrasing has been added in this section 3.1 to give readers a heads-up of a topic – differential land access- that will be addressed in Discussion section 4.1.

Figures 2a, 2b and 3A are not essential – We removed Figures 3a and 3b and created new Figures 2a and 2b to make the images more informative to a global audience. We understand that the details of landrace names and distribution by cultivar groups may be more interesting to Andean scholars, while the novel application of RCF indexes in the context of smallholder agriculture may be more appealing. However, should reviewers still consider the new Figures 2a and 2bnot indispensable, we can remove them.

Figure 6: not lisible – Now Figure 5, has been improved to better convey the main message that global cropping patterns are different across landscapes. Therefore, the intention is not to be able to precisely discern the meaning of each color-coded line in the figure, which we acknowledge is not easily attained due to the quantity of data contained. Green background has been changed to white, font increased and legend moved and placed horizontally at bottom of the figure. We hope that these modifications have made it easier to read and understand.

Reviewer 2 Report

The study is well conducted, study design is robust, and analysis of the data is scientifically correct. However, the study is very descriptive. It is not clear what the study objectives are, concrete research questions are lacking, and the study could be better embedded in the broader literature. Now it lacks a clear structure and at times reads more like a well-written survey report than an academic paper. Authors could consider removing some of the results, but first the structure needs to be better highlighted and presented.

Author Response

The study is well conducted, study design is robust, and analysis of the data is scientifically correct. However, the study is very descriptive. It is not clear what the study objectives are, concrete research questions are lacking, and the study could be better embedded in the broader literature. Now it lacks a clear structure and at times reads more like a well-written survey report than an academic paper. Authors could consider removing some of the results, but first the structure needs to be better highlighted and presented. We thank the reviewer for having taken the time to provide us with these helpful comments. We agree that the study, specially navigating the detailed results section, make it seem quite descriptive. However, the high-resolution (and unparalleled) nature of our spatial-temporal data in the potato´s center of crop origin draws us to share this kind of detailed documentation with a global audience beyond the Andean region. In the last two paragraphs of the Introduction section we have included the concrete objectives and ensuing research questions driving the study. We are considering the question “Can broader lessons be inferred for other bioculturally rich mountain environments?” in an attempt to make linkages with similar phenomena at a global scale. We limit ourselves to briefly refer back to this question in the Discussion section 4.3, having added a more recent publication on the subject matter of current drivers to agropastoral land-use changes and biodiversity loss in mountain environments. We hope that by providing more clarity in the study´s objectives and succinctly explaining how we went about pursuing them (the spatial and temporal data that we sought to collect and analyze), the logic of each Results section can be more understandable and palatable.

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Editor,

the subject of the paper “ The land-use dynamics of potato agrobiodiversity in  the highlands of central Peru: a case study of spatial-temporal management across farming landscapes”  is very interesting and  relevant in the context of drivers for land cultivated patterns dynamics.

The topic is analyzed extensively and using different analytical approaches allowing to obtain a very broad framework on the topic. The paper is well structured and  should be improved only in some minor aspects. For this reasons my suggestion is to accept the paper with minor revisions.

However, I must point out that although the topics are analyzed and reported in a clear and complete way, they are many. This makes the paper very long and difficult to read. Anyway, instructions for Authors don’t provide a limit of characters.

General remarks

The title doesn't fit with the contents reported in the paper.  This because land  use involves the management and modification of natural environment  into built environment (settlements) and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures.. Some land uses, such as agriculture, is characterized by a specific land cover pattern. The title should be changed considering the declared object of the research which is the dynamic of cultivation pattern (or agricultural land cover pattern) and potato agrobiodiversity in the highlands of central Peru

Some figures  should be improved to allow the effective comprehension of the results obtained.

Specific remarks

Some remarks  are reported in the attached file,  hoping to improve the overall readability of the manuscript.

Best regards

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

I must point out that although the topics are analyzed and reported in a clear and complete way, they are many. This makes the paper very long and difficult to read. We sincerely thank the reviewer for taking the time to read our paper and contribute to its improvement and relevance for a global audience. We agree that due to the breadth and detail of our very comprehensive results, the paper seems a bit long. It is quite challenging to cut anything out, as each subsection of our resulting analyses is connected in a manner that allows us to deliver our three main Discussion sections. Leaving anything out at this point may compromise the integrity of our story about high-altitude smallholder farming systems.

The title doesn't fit with the contents reported in the paper. We have attempted to improve the title and convey with more precision what the reviewer has suggested regarding agricultural land cover as one type of land-use system.

Some figures should be improved to allow the effective comprehension of the results obtained. We examined all figures and improved those which were still difficult to read. Figure 5 (formerly Figure 6) and Figures 4a, 4b (formerly Figures 5a, 5b) have been modified to make them more legible.

Specific remarks

Some remarks  are reported in the attached file, hoping to improve the overall readability of the manuscript. We have inserted our responses to each of the comments that the reviewer kindly took the time to insert in our manuscript PDF file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

no further comments

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for providing us with additional inputs during this second round of the peer-review process. The reviewer has encouraged improvement of the introduction section of the manuscript. It can be argued that provided more time, an ampler discussion of land-use change processes linking to more global references can be included. On the other hand, we are aiming to keep the story more focused on high-Andean smallholder farming and agrobiodiversity in this center of crop origin, since we have accessed so much fine-grained information. This makes the available literature and possibilities to loop into previous findings on the subject much more restricted.