Research on the Effect of Conservation Tillage Mode on the Suppression of Near-Surface Dust in Farmland

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript is well written and I would suggest some minor changes in the current article.

1. The figures need to be better represented especially enlarged Figure 3 and Figure 7
2. In section 2 the references are not much. Add more reference in this section.
3. In table 3, under the title total wind erosion there are two columns, is it correct? What is unit of the sampling time.

Author Response

Dear reviewer. Thank you very much for your affirmation of the writing of this research paper. We have made targeted revisions to the text according to your relevant suggestions.

1. Thank you very much for your suggestion. In this article, Figure 3 and Figure 7 have been replaced with higher-quality pictures according to relevant requirements. They have been enlarged to improve the display effect and make the article more readable.
2. Thank you for your suggestions. According to your suggestions, relevant references have been added in Chapter 2 of the text.
3. Thank you very much for your relevant suggestions. There are two columns of total wind erosion in Table 1 in the third chapter of the text. The first column of total wind erosion is the sum of the wind erosion at each height of the aeolian sand collector in each sampling. The total wind erosion volume is the sum of the three sampling wind erosion volumes in the second column. After careful consideration, there is indeed a problem of misinterpretation. The first column of wind erosion volume is now deleted. In addition, the sampling time of monitoring points has been supplemented in the text.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

A very interesting work. The research was laborius and required a lot of commitment. The individual chapters of the work were well descirbed. My only coment: please write the aim of the study of the end of introduction.

Coments in the manuscript.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear reviewer.Thank you very much for your affirmation of the research work of this paper.

As you said, this work is very time-consuming and requires a lot of scientific research funds as support. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, we carried out research on near-surface farmland dust monitoring in the surrounding urban areas of Beijing for three consecutive years. The main purpose of this work is to study the effect of different conservation tillage modes on farmland dust suppression. To clarify the suppression of farmland dust by different conservation tillage modes and to provide support for the promotion of high-quality conservation tillage in urban areas around Beijing, the purpose of this research has been supplemented in this paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 3 Report

Paragraph "1. Introduction" does not describe soil erosion control method that uses No-till technology. It is not clear whether this technology is used in the country in question or whether it is only to be introduced.

Literature review does not clarify the necessity of the research presented in the article.

Text references to Figures 2 and 3 come after these figures. The figures should have been placed after their mention in the text.

Wind erosion determination method described in paragraph "2.1. Farmland wind erosion monitoring" (Figure 1) is standard or it was developed by the paper’s? This requires clarification.

The methodology of the experiment on erosion control technologies is insufficiently described.

Figure 7 (map) is of poor quality, the text is not readable, should be replaced by a higher-quality figure. In addition, figures 14-19 should be replaced with higher-quality figures.

In Figure 18, one of the values is not written in English, but in Chinese.

Erosion control tillage technology description should be placed after the paragraph "1. Introduction", and only after this paragraph the description of the wind erosion intensity study.

The choice of the erosion control tillage technology with the chopped corn straw use and the choice of corn straw should be justified. In addition, it is not clear from the article’s text whether one, two or three erosion control tillage technologies are considered. It is worth clearly indicating which technologies are used and to justify their choice.

The choice of a straw coverage ratio of -40-60% should have been justified.

The paragraph "3.2. Farmland near-surface PM2.5 and PM10 monitoring" partially describes the experiment’s methodology. It is necessary to structure the information in the article according to the names of the paragraphs.

Author Response

Dear reviewer. Thank you very much for your relevant academic suggestions on this paper

 

1.Paragraph "1. Introduction" does not describe soil erosion control method that uses No-till technology. It is not clear whether this technology is used in the country in question or whether it is only to be introduced.

Thank you for your suggestion. The introduction is supplemented with descriptions of soil erosion control using conservation tillage techniques. Conservation tillage can reduce soil wind and water erosion and protect the current conservation tillage technology has been maturely applied in the United States, Australia, Brazil, and other countries. Widespread application. However, due to the considerable differences between China's agronomic planting methods and foreign countries. The promotion and application of China's conservation tillage technology should be adapted to local conditions, and the conservation tillage technology suitable for China's national conditions should be developed.

 

2.Literature review does not clarify the necessity of the research presented in the article.

Thank you for your suggestion. The text has added a description of the purpose and necessity of the relevant research in the literature review.

 

3.Text references to Figures 2 and 3 come after these figures. The figures should have been placed after their mention in the text.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Figures 2 and 3 in the text have moved the position of pictures according to the relevant suggestions after the numbers.

 

4.Wind erosion determination method described in paragraph "2.1. Farmland wind erosion monitoring" (Figure 1) is standard or it was developed by the paper’s? This requires clarification.

Thank you for your comments. The dust collector in Figure 1 was independently developed by the National Institute of Conservation Tillage of China Agricultural University, the research institute that carried out this study. The relevant clarifications have been made in the text, and the principle of wind erosion collection has been supplemented and related methods.

 

5.Figure 7 (map) is of poor quality, the text is not readable, should be replaced by a higher-quality figure. In addition, figures 14-19 should be replaced with higher-quality figures.

In Figure 18, one of the values is not written in English, but in Chinese.

Thank you for your suggestion. In the text, Figure 4, Figure 7, Figure 14~19 of the original text have been replaced with pictures of higher quality, and Figure 18 has been replaced to further improve the readability of the text.

 

6.Erosion control tillage technology description should be placed after the paragraph "1. Introduction", and only after this paragraph the description of the wind erosion intensity study.

The choice of the erosion control tillage technology with the chopped corn straw use and the choice of corn straw should be justified. In addition, it is not clear from the article’s text whether one, two or three erosion control tillage technologies are considered. It is worth clearly indicating which technologies are used and to justify their choice.

The choice of a straw coverage ratio of -40-60% should have been justified.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. The principle of protective tillage technology to inhibit wind and water erosion has been supplemented in the introduction part of the article. The article aims at Beijing's three northern districts and cities, Miyun, Huairou, and Yanqing. Related research work was carried out on the characteristics of fugitive dust and, according to the local agronomic planting methods, three conservation tillage modes. Including straw burial, stubble + straw mulching, straw mulching, and traditional plowing and rotary tillage were selected. For comparison, three conservation tillage modes are considered in this paper. This tillage method has been popularized and applied in a specific area in the relevant areas of the experiment, so the selection of farming techniques should be reasonable. The relevant definition of conservation tillage in China is that the straw coverage rate is greater than 30%. It is reasonable to choose the straw coverage rate of 40% to 60% in the experimental plots in this paper. Supplementary explanations have been made in the text. est site and comparison mode selection.

 

7.The paragraph "3.2. Farmland near-surface PM2.5 and PM10 monitoring" partially describes the experiment’s methodology. It is necessary to structure the information in the article according to the names of the paragraphs.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. Some descriptions of test methods have been deleted in Section 3.2 of the text, and the framework of the article has been rebuilt as required.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

1) In "2.1. Test site and comparison mode selection," the text that mentions figure 1 should be placed in front of the figure at the beginning of the paragraph. For example, place the following text in front of figure 1 «In order to monitor the effects of three types of conservation tillage techniques, including straw burial, stubble + straw mulching, and straw mulching, in suppressing the seasonally exposed farmland dust. As shown in Figure 1, between September 2020 and October 2021, the monitoring team built nine farmland dust monitoring points based on local crop planting and straw treatment characteristics in Miyun, Huairou, and Yanqing».
2) The two tables on page 14 have the same numbering:
Table 5. Multiple comparison of different farming methods (Duncan method)
Table 5. Fitting equation of farmland PM2.5 and PM10 release under different surface wind speeds.
The numbering should be changed in the tables’ titles and in the text, where the authors refer to these tables.
3) As a suggestion it should be noted that: tables 2; 3; 4 and 5 (line 423 and 445) will look more presentable if located on one page, rather than being divided into two. If this is not possible, the names of the columns should be duplicated on the second page, where the table continues.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your relevant suggestion articles. Your suggestions make the article format more standardized and more readable.

1. Thanksfor your suggestion. According to your suggestion, the position of Figure 1 in the text has been adjusted;
2. Thanks for your suggestion.Table 6. Fitting equation of farmland PM2.5 and PM10 release under different surface wind speeds has been modified. The references in the text are also modified;
3. Thanks for your suggestion. The position of Table 2 was moved first to increase the readability of the article.

If there is a problem with the format during the revision process, please also trouble you to correct it.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc