Micromorphological Characteristics of Fallow, Pyrogenic, Arable Soils of Central Part of Yakutia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors analyzed micromorphological characteristic of Calcic Cryosol, fallow, pyrogenic, and arable soils in central part of Yakutia.

The originality and significance of content are high. However, the quality of presentation should be improved. Laboratory Methods are not adequately described.

Line 102-117 could be moved to introduction section.

Figure legends for Figure 3A and 3B are not adequately described.

The term "significant difference" should be avoided when the measurable difference between groups is not statistically calculated. Line 106 "is located" is redundant.

Extensive editing of English language and style required. The cohesion between paragraphs needs to be established to smoothens the flow of writing.

The paragraphs length varied a lot from one sentence to more than 10 sentences, which makes some sections of the manuscript choppy and jumpy. I would recommend paragraphs in three to eight sentences. The structure of some paragraphs needs to be improved with more transition sentences to build effective links between paragraphs. 

Author Response

Response to a review of the manuscript “Micromorphological characteristic of fallow, pyrogenic, arable soils of central part of Yakutia”.

Dear reviewer!

Thank you for your comments, they were completely taken into account, which improved the quality of the article for publication in Journal.

Text that has been changed is marked by yellow color.

General comments:

1. Laboratory Methods are not adequately described.

Response: Thank you for the comments, we reworked the section.

2. Line 102-117 could be moved to introduction section.

Response: The information has been moved to introduction section.

3. Figure legends for Figure 3A and 3B are not adequately described.

Response: The Legend has been reworked.

4. The term "significant difference" should be avoided when the measurable difference between groups is not statistically calculated. Line 106 "is located" is redundant.

Response: The information was deleted.

5. Extensive editing of English language and style required. The cohesion between paragraphs needs to be established to smoothens the flow of writing.

Response: The text of article has been reworked.

Thank you for work of our article.

Sincerely,

Engineer of Saint-Petersburg State University, Vyacheslav I. Polyakov.

Professor of Saint-Petersburg State University, Evgeny V. Abakumov.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

When including several quotations together, as numbers, please leave one blank space after comma and the next number. For example: [6,9,12,18,19] should be written as [6, 9, 12, 18, 19]. Apply this rule to the whole manuscript.

On page 3, line 102 reads: “…The city of Yakuts is located is located in the Tuymaada valley...” The words “is located” are duplicated. It should read “The city of Yakuts is located in the Tuymaada valley”.

In section "2.1. Sampling strategy" there is no explanation of the criteria used to select the different sampling points, as well as a general description of what each sampling point represents. Please include this information.

On page 6, line 138 reads: “The description of thin section is presented in Table 2.” It should read “The description of the soil monoliths used for thin section is presented in Table 2.”

Section “2.3. Laboratory Methods” should be more detailed.

On page 13, line 346 reads: “However, the main problem of these soils is salinization, which can be solved by water reclamation of the territory.” Please explain where this conclusion about soil salinity comes from and what the rationale is for the proposal to wash these soils by water reclamation.

Author Response

Response to a review of the manuscript “Micromorphological characteristic of fallow, pyrogenic, arable soils of central part of Yakutia”.

Dear reviewer!

Thank you for your comments, they were completely taken into account, which improved the quality of the article for publication in Journal.

Text that has been changed is marked by yellow color.

General comments:

1. When including several quotations together, as numbers, please leave one blank space after comma and the next number. For example: [6,9,12,18,19] should be written as [6, 9, 12, 18, 19]. Apply this rule to the whole manuscript.

Response: It’s done.

2. On page 3, line 102 reads: “…The city of Yakuts is located is located in the Tuymaada valley...” The words “is located” are duplicated. It should read “The city of Yakuts is located in the Tuymaada valley”.

Response: It was corrected.

3. On page 6, line 138 reads: “The description of thin section is presented in Table 2.” It should read “The description of the soil monoliths used for thin section is presented in Table 2.”

Response: It was corrected.

4. Section “2.3. Laboratory Methods” should be more detailed.

Response: We reworked the section 2.3.

5. On page 13, line 346 reads: “However, the main problem of these soils is salinization, which can be solved by water reclamation of the territory.” Please explain where this conclusion about soil salinity comes from and what the rationale is for the proposal to wash these soils by water reclamation.

Response: We removed the information from the article.

Thank you for work of our article.

Sincerely,

Engineer of Saint-Petersburg State University, Vyacheslav I. Polyakov.

Professor of Saint-Petersburg State University, Evgeny V. Abakumov.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

1-           Page 2 - Lines 56 & 57: There is a “for” missing between “food” and “themselves”.

2-           Page 2 - Lines 63 & 64: Please provide references for the statement “Recently, a large number of works have been published related to the study of biogeochemical cycles in the fallow lands of the Arctic”.

3-           Page 2 - Lines 72 to 74: Please provide references for the statement “This is due to the peculiarities of the way of life of the indigenous peoples of the north and their connection with the natural environment.”.

4-           Page 2 - Lines 72 to 74: Please elaborate more and present more information on the statement “This is due to the peculiarities of the way of life of the indigenous peoples of the north and their connection with the natural environment.”.

5-           Page 2 - Lines 79: Use of the word “So” at the beginning of the sentence does not sound correct as the sentence does not present the conclusion of the previous sentence.

6-           Page 2 - Lines 97 & 98: In the phrase “The main objective of this study is to study”, the second instance of the word “study” can be replaced with the word “investigate” or any other dissimilar word.

7-           Page 3 - Lines 106 & 107: In the two sentences “The average annual temperature is - 8.8 C. The temperature of the warmest month (July) is 38.4 C.”, there are missing degree signs “°” before the centigrade “C” signs.

8-           Page 3 – Line 121: Please double check if the phrase “field flight work” is correct.

9-           Page 3 to 4: In the subsection “2.1. Sampling strategy”, Please elaborate more and present more information on the how and why the chosen depths had been chosen for sampling.

10-         Page 6 – Line 136: In the sentence “temperature at a depth of 20 cm is 1.4 C”, there is a missing degree sign “°” before the centigrade “C” sign.

11-         Page 7 – Lines 169 & 170: In the sentence “The soil is wet than the areas that were not affected by the fire”, the word “wet” should be corrected as “wetter”.

12-         Page 9 - Lines 235 & 236: Please provide references for the statement “A characteristic feature of the soils used for pastures is a clear overconsolidation, this phenomenon is typical for all soils on which cattle graze.”.

13-         Page 14 – Lines 360 & 361: Please elaborate more on how the statements “the fight against which is a key problem in Yakutia,” and “which is associated with a low population density of the territory” are related.

14-         Page 14 – Line 363: In the phrase “As a result of the study, we studied”, one of the instances of the word “study” can be replaced with another word.

15-         The language of the overall manuscript can be further improved.

Author Response

Response to a review of the manuscript “Micromorphological characteristic of fallow, pyrogenic, arable soils of central part of Yakutia”.

Dear reviewer!

Thank you for your comments, they were completely taken into account, which improved the quality of the article for publication in Journal.

Text that has been changed is marked by yellow color.

General comments:

1. Page 2 - Lines 56 & 57: There is a “for” missing between “food” and “themselves”.

Response: The term has been corrected

2. Page 2 - Lines 63 & 64: Please provide references for the statement “Recently, a large number of works have been published related to the study of biogeochemical cycles in the fallow lands of the Arctic”.

Response: The Introduction section has been reworked

3. Page 2 - Lines 72 to 74: Please provide references for the statement “This is due to the peculiarities of the way of life of the indigenous peoples of the north and their connection with the natural environment.”.

Response: The reference has been added.

4. Page 2 - Lines 79: Use of the word “So” at the beginning of the sentence does not sound correct as the sentence does not present the conclusion of the previous sentence.

Response: The sentence has been corrected.

5. Page 2 - Lines 97 & 98: In the phrase “The main objective of this study is to study”, the second instance of the word “study” can be replaced with the word “investigate” or any other dissimilar word.

Response: The sentences have been corrected

6. Page 3 - Lines 106 & 107: In the two sentences “The average annual temperature is - 8.8 C. The temperature of the warmest month (July) is 38.4 C.”, there are missing degree signs “°” before the centigrade “C” signs.

Response: The symbol has been added

7. Page 3 – Line 121: Please double check if the phrase “field flight work” is correct.

Response: The sentence has been corrected

8. Page 3 to 4: In the subsection “2.1. Sampling strategy”, Please elaborate more and present more information on the how and why the chosen depths had been chosen for sampling.

Response: The additional information has been added.

9. Page 6 – Line 136: In the sentence “temperature at a depth of 20 cm is 1.4 C”, there is a missing degree sign “°” before the centigrade “C” sign.

Response: The symbol has been added.

10. Page 7 – Lines 169 & 170: In the sentence “The soil is wet than the areas that were not affected by the fire”, the word “wet” should be corrected as “wetter”

Response: The term has been corrected.

11. Page 9 - Lines 235 & 236: Please provide references for the statement “A characteristic feature of the soils used for pastures is a clear overconsolidation, this phenomenon is typical for all soils on which cattle graze.”.

Response: The reference has been added.

12. Page 14 – Lines 360 & 361: Please elaborate more on how the statements “the fight against which is a key problem in Yakutia,” and “which is associated with a low population density of the territory” are related.

Response: The references have been added.

13. Page 14 – Line 363: In the phrase “As a result of the study, we studied”, one of the instances of the word “study” can be replaced with another word.

Response: The sentence has been corrected.

14. The language of the overall manuscript can be further improved.

Response: The language has been improved.

Thank you for work of our article.

Sincerely,

Engineer of Saint-Petersburg State University, Vyacheslav I. Polyakov.

Professor of Saint-Petersburg State University, Evgeny V. Abakumov.

Reviewer 4 Report

GENERAL

The authors deal with an important and relatively rare topic related to effect of agricultural use, fire and fallowing on micromorphological soil features. On the other hand, the paper requires many improvements before it’s publication.

I can see following issues in this paper in order of importance:

(1) profile selection and number – I am not sure if all profiles represent soils with comparable basic soil forming factors before being affected by human. Particularly, I refer to parent material and inicial moisture conditions. Do these soils represent comparable soil texture, parent material and permafrost depth during profile examination? Additionally, at least two soil profiles should be studied for each type of land use or soil status. Particularly, the authors should have only one profile of fallow (Y1), pyrogenic (Y5), pasture (Y6) and hayfield (Y7) soil, as for other soils this condition seems to be fulfilled.

(2) incomplete profile description, without information on soil texture, depth of ALL horizons or layers to a depth of about 1-1,5m, groundwater or permafrost, if exist within 1,5m. I suggest also to provide designation of soil colour in Munsell notation for each horizon or layer, at least at dry state as well as the content of organic matter. Such profiles description could be placed in Material and Methods or in supplementary file and it would contribute to discussion in this and future papers. After this, an additional verification of WRB Soil Reference Group should be performed. The photos of remaining profiles – Y7. Y9, Y11, Y12 – should be also added to the paper.

(3) The lack of simple and clear list of table showing the most important micromorphologic features which distinguish zonal, fallow, meadow, pasture and pyrogenic soils. It could be placed at the end of Results and Discussion section. An example of idea of such a table I provide below (it may be in horizontal arrangement):

(4) The reference list seems to be incomplete, as only 7 references outside of Russia are provided. I am pretty sure that there are some more references regarding micromorphology of Cryosols may be found, e. g. from Antarctics, Canada, and perhaps also Norway, Sweden, Finland etc.

E. g.: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=pl&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=micromorphology+of+cryogenic+soils&btnG=

More over, the discussion on effect of fallowing on soil organic matter could be improved by adding some references even from tropical climate, where the fallowing was and sometimes is used to improve soil properties, including organic matter content.

(5) Discussion is not existing. The lines 353-361 are not related to soil micromorphology at all.

(6) Introduction is to extensive, the lines 30-80 could be reduced. E.g. the lines 47-58 and perhaps others, less related to soil science and seem to be not necessary.

ConsequentlyI recommend major revision of this paper considering all issues I mentioned before. I have also some smaller notes, which may contribute to improve this paper.

DETAILED

Lines 105-18: Please add information about climate classsification according to Koppen-Geiger with respective reference;

Line 115: According to my knowledge sandy loam is not a kind of rock, but soil texture class. Please, replace with correct term or remove.

Figure 2: Please add photos of remaining profile. For each profile add information on current status or land use (e.g. arable, fallow, pyrogenic) and revise WRB 2015 designation.

Table 1: Please, complete this table with information according to indications from (2) in GENERAL part of this review. Please note, that WRB 2015 does not contain such qualifiers as „fallow” or „pyrogenic”. If you decide to use them, please justify it shortly at the footnote of the table. Perhaps this table could be arranged horizontally. I would also change the columns of this table starting from status or land use to group similar soils, then profile designation (e.g. Y1), locality, coordinates, more details on vegetation, and then profile description adding information on color and Organic matter content, and WRB 2015 Reference Group. Optionally, the full profile description may be shifted to supplementary file, if the full table results too extensive.

3. Results and Discussion: please add discussion with respective references to majority of paragraphs.

Line 148: Please, note that in tropical zones the fallowing is an method of improving soil due to increase of organic matter content. Perhaps it could be very interesting observation that in cold climate fallowing decreases organic matter content, and in tropical it may have opposite effect,depending on time.

Lines 173-174: Please, remove this phrase, it is repetition from Introduction.

Lines 200-203: Does the deeper elaboration of fallow soils compared to natural, results from fallowing or previous cultivation with plough?

Lines 220-221, 233: Please add short explanation of the term „pyrogenic water”.

Lines 274-278: This paragraph does not fit to results and can be removed. Optionally, it may be shifted to Introduction.

Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8: Please, revise the figure captions. Does all these figures show „humus streaks”? At least for Fig. 8, the main text indicates „coprogenous microstructure” (line 319)

Lines 328-329 and 379: I understand that the presence of various minerals (quartz, feldspar, mica) in Anthrosols results from agricultural use, but in my opinion, the parent material of each profile should be checked. If I am not right, please explain.

Author Response

Response to a review of the manuscript “Micromorphological characteristic of fallow, pyrogenic, arable soils of central part of Yakutia”.

Dear reviewer!

Thank you for your comments, they were completely taken into account, which improved the quality of the article for publication in Journal.

Text that has been changed is marked by yellow color.

General comments:

1. profile selection and number – I am not sure if all profiles represent soils with comparable basic soil forming factors before being affected by human. Particularly, I refer to parent material and inicial moisture conditions. Do these soils represent comparable soil texture, parent material and permafrost depth during profile examination? Additionally, at least two soil profiles should be studied for each type of land use or soil status. Particularly, the authors should have only one profile of fallow (Y1), pyrogenic (Y5), pasture (Y6) and hayfield (Y7) soil, as for other soils this condition seems to be fulfilled.

Response: From the map of Quaternary deposits it should be has the same parent materials and the same soil forming factors on the territory.  For the fallow (Y1), pyrogenic (Y5), pasture (Y6) and hayfield (Y7) soil we had only one thin section for the each soil horizons.

2. Incomplete profile description, without information on soil texture, depth of ALL horizons or layers to a depth of about 1-1,5m, groundwater or permafrost, if exist within 1,5m. I suggest also to provide designation of soil colour in Munsell notation for each horizon or layer, at least at dry state as well as the content of organic matter. Such profiles description could be placed in Material and Methods or in supplementary file and it would contribute to discussion in this and future papers. After this, an additional verification of WRB Soil Reference Group should be performed. The photos of remaining profiles – Y7. Y9, Y11, Y12 – should be also added to the paper.

Response: We added the table with the physical properties in supplementary materials and improved the soil name by WRB classification.

3. The lack of simple and clear list of table showing the most important micromorphologic features which distinguish zonal, fallow, meadow, pasture and pyrogenic soils. It could be placed at the end of Results and Discussion section.

Response: We have added the table with the important micromorphologic features in results and discussion section.

4. The reference list seems to be incomplete, as only 7 references outside of Russia are provided. I am pretty sure that there are some more references regarding micromorphology of Cryosols may be found, e. g. from Antarctics, Canada, and perhaps also Norway, Sweden, Finland. Discussion is not existing. The lines 353-361 are not related to soil micromorphology at all.

Response: We improved the discussion section of the article.

5. Introduction is to extensive, the lines 30-80 could be reduced. E.g. the lines 47-58 and perhaps others, less related to soil science and seem to be not necessary.

Response: We reworked the Introduction section.

Minor comments:

1. Lines 105-18: Please add information about climate classsification according to Koppen-Geiger with respective reference;

Response: The information about climate classsification according to Koppen-Geiger has been added.

2. Line 115: According to my knowledge sandy loam is not a kind of rock, but soil texture class. Please, replace with correct term or remove.

Response: The term has been corrected.

3. Figure 2: Please add photos of remaining profile. For each profile add information on current status or land use (e.g. arable, fallow, pyrogenic) and revise WRB 2015 designation.

Response: The figure 2 and the legend has been improved.

4. Table 1: Please, complete this table with information according to indications from (2) in GENERAL part of this review. Please note, that WRB 2015 does not contain such qualifiers as „fallow” or „pyrogenic”. If you decide to use them, please justify it shortly at the footnote of the table. Perhaps this table could be arranged horizontally. I would also change the columns of this table starting from status or land use to group similar soils, then profile designation (e.g. Y1), locality, coordinates, more details on vegetation, and then profile description adding information on color and Organic matter content, and WRB 2015 Reference Group. Optionally, the full profile description may be shifted to supplementary file, if the full table results too extensive.

Response: We improved the soil name by WRB classification and added the table in Supplementary material.

5. Line 148: Please, note that in tropical zones the fallowing is an method of improving soil due to increase of organic matter content. Perhaps it could be very interesting observation that in cold climate fallowing decreases organic matter content, and in tropical it may have opposite effect,depending on time.

Response: The information has been added to the Results and discussion section

6. Lines 173-174: Please, remove this phrase, it is repetition from Introduction.

Response: The information has been removed.

7. Lines 200-203: Does the deeper elaboration of fallow soils compared to natural, results from fallowing or previous cultivation with plough?

Response: We think so, but don’t have an information about cultivation in the territory.

8. Lines 220-221, 233: Please add short explanation of the term „pyrogenic water”.

Response: The explanation has been added.

9. Lines 274-278: This paragraph does not fit to results and can be removed. Optionally, it may be shifted to Introduction.

Response: The information has been removed

10. Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8: Please, revise the figure captions. Does all these figures show „humus streaks”? At least for Fig. 8, the main text indicates „coprogenous microstructure” (line 319)

Response: The figure caption has been revised.

11. Lines 328-329 and 379: I understand that the presence of various minerals (quartz, feldspar, mica) in Anthrosols results from agricultural use, but in my opinion, the parent material of each profile should be checked. If I am not right, please explain.

Response: The parent material of the soils has been investigated during field works and consist from modern alluvial deposits in whole studied area.

Thank you for work of our article.

Sincerely,

Engineer of Saint-Petersburg State University, Vyacheslav I. Polyakov.

Professor of Saint-Petersburg State University, Evgeny V. Abakumov.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

GENERAL

The authors addressed major part of my observations and it is much more suitable for publication. The discussion is still quite weak, although after short browsing I can suppose that there are not many international papers regarding micromorphology of pyrogenic soils or soils affected by fire in subarctic regions. However, I would like to see short information if and/or how it is possible to distinguish pyrogenic, fallow, arable and natural soils (etc) on the base of micromorphological analysis and how.

Despite of these issues the paper addresses rare issues related to subarctic soils and deserves publication in an international journal.

DETAILED

Lines 84-87: I suggest to add particular code designing climate type of the study region, perhaps it is Dfc, as I could rouhly assess it on the map from Enciclopaedia Britannica. Please check it. The authors’ observation that the descrription of this climate type does not match perfectly to Yakutsk and it’s surrounding is important and in future it may contribute to improve climate classifications.

Line 174: I have a doubt regarding pyrogenic water. It is clear, that water is one of products of combustion process of organic matter. However, does part of this water may occur in liquid state during or shortly or after the fire occurrence? My doubt results from the high temperature of combustion process.

Line 356: Please consider replacin „so” by „as”.

Table 3: Perhaps it would be useful to add a columnn named „biocharred/carbonized organic matter” (if it differs considerably from „humus streaks”) or „cracking of quartz granules”? Please, check also the name of the last column – should it read „pedofutures” or pedofeatures”?

Author Response

Response to a review of the manuscript “Micromorphological characteristic of fallow, pyrogenic, arable soils of central part of Yakutia”.

Dear reviewer!

Thank you for your comments, they were completely taken into account, which improved the quality of the article for publication in Journal.

Text that has been changed is marked by red color.

General comments:

1. I would like to see short information if and/or how it is possible to distinguish pyrogenic, fallow, arable and natural soils (etc) on the base of micromorphological analysis and how.

Response: Thank you! We added the short additional information about the main distinguish among studied soils based on the Table 3.

Minor comments:

1. Lines 84-87: I suggest to add particular code designing climate type of the study region, perhaps it is Dfc, as I could rouhly assess it on the map from Enciclopaedia Britannica. Please check it. The authors’ observation that the descrription of this climate type does not match perfectly to Yakutsk and it’s surrounding is important and in future it may contribute to improve climate classifications.

Response: Thank you! We added Dfc index in the text.

2. Line 174: I have a doubt regarding pyrogenic water. It is clear, that water is one of products of combustion process of organic matter. However, does part of this water may occur in liquid state during or shortly or after the fire occurrence? My doubt results from the high temperature of combustion process.

Response: We added the additional information about pyrogenic water in the article. It consist not only from water, it is complex of water and organic acids. This is why the humus streaks are formed in Y5 profiles.

3. Line 356: Please consider replacin „so” by „as”.

Response: Done

4. Table 3: Perhaps it would be useful to add a columnn named „biocharred/carbonized organic matter” (if it differs considerably from „humus streaks”) or „cracking of quartz granules”? Please, check also the name of the last column – should it read „pedofutures” or pedofeatures”?

Response: Thank you! We added “cracking of quartz granules” column.

Thank you for work of our article.

Sincerely,

Engineer of Saint-Petersburg State University, Vyacheslav I. Polyakov.

Professor of Saint-Petersburg State University, Evgeny V. Abakumov.