Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors used field survey method to study the agrodiversity in oases agroecosystems of Southern Morocco. They found the oases are varying from one to another. The research item is interesting and has some innovative. However, there are some suggestion for authors to improve the manuscript before accept for publishing.

1. For figure 1, please show the approximate range boundaries for the six oases, and borders of the provinces of Morocco.

2. I don't quite understand the meaning of "Ksour", it doesn't seem to be a common word. Does it mean village? Can you can replace it with a more common word?

3. All the specific information of the six oases can be shown in Table 1, including the area size, and the specific text description of 116-163 lines can be reduced.

4. As for part 2.2, since field survey is the main way to obtain data in this study, it is better to provide a more detailed outline of the interview questions in the supplementary.

5. Line 180, Capital case.

6. Is it possible to summarize the main characteristics of agrodiversity of each oasis, instead of just giving the conclusion that each oasis is different.

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Thank you very much for your constructive comments. Please refer to the attached cover letter with respect to the way they were addressed.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

 

Title: Evaluation and structuring of agrodiversity in oases agroeco-systems of Southern Morocco

The paper presents well structured work of one of the most important current thematics. However, Minor corrections are required, and the following suggestions may be helpful to improve the quality of the manuscript.

Suggestion 1: Please rewrite the abstract and add some statistics to highlight the findings.

Suggestion 2: Please revise the introduction section according to the following recommendations:

-       Verify some statistics such as oases area and try to diversify references.

-       Revise the coherence of the section.

-       Reorder some ideas that may reveal repetition.

-       Revise the structure and the English language.

Suggestion 2: Please revise the data section

Suggestion 3: Please revise the discussion section and add recent references

 

Suggestion 4: Please improve the conclusions section by rewriting its content according to the research  rules

please revise English 

Author Response

Thank you very much for your constructive comments. Please refer to the attached cover letter with respect to the way they were addressed.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors, I have read with a lot of interest your paper and I found it really well-structured and clear in the introduction and in the description of the methodology. Following you can find some minor revisions.

 

Introduction: I suggest to better highlight the different ecosystem services linked to traditional oases agroecosystems.

 

Table 1. Maybe it is not the "State"m but the "Province".

 

Chapter 2.2. Plese add the info about the year when surveys with questionnaires have been made. It also would be interesting to add the questionnaire as an annex, in order to favour repeatability of your research in other oases, also in other North Africa country, to compare results.

 

281-289. Please unify the term in foreign language (khamas, habous, melk, but also khettara, seguia, in the following paragraphs). Always use italic and lowercase.

 

294-296 and following lines. ALways leave a space between the number and the unit of measurement.

 

468-476. The decrease of ceral cultivation can represent a problem as local landraces of cereals are adapted to arid environments and could represent a key resource in the context of climate change, especially considering that north Africa countries are highly dependant on imprt of cereals from abroad.

 

558-559. The name of the FAO Programme in GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems)

Author Response

Thank you very much for your constructive comments. Please refer to the attached cover letter with respect to the way they were addressed.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf