Going Back to Grassland? Assessing the Impact of Groundwater Decline on Irrigated Agriculture Using Remote Sensing Data
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
General comment:
The author studied the impact of groundwater decline on propensity of cropland switching back to grassland at circular irrigated fields. The research is very interesting at field scale and will be attractive to the readers. In all, I suggest the authors make minor revision of the MS.
Specific comments:
1. The author should provide us the geographic coordinate of the study area in “2.1. Study Area and Data”.
2. I suggest the author show the location of weather station and 111 wells in figure 1.
3.The author include the growing season (April – October in the study region) the average monthly mean temperature and the total growing season precipitation as control variables. What is cropping system and specific growing period for winter wheat, corn and sorghum in New Mexico? Is there two or three harvests of diverse crop varieties within one year?
Author Response
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Please see the attached point-by-point responses.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This document does not have the quality to be considered an article, it is in the form of a technical report
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Please see the attached point-by-point responses.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Please find the attached PDF for detailed comments and suggestions.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Please see the attached point-by-point responses.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
(1) The purpose of the study should be clearly stated in the last paragraph of introduction.
(2) In Figure 1., it is necessary to show the relative position of the study area in the country, you can add a thumbnail. In addition, the names of major towns need to be marked.
(3) In the section of ‘Study Area and Data’, it is suggested to add a table to show the details of the data used. For example, it can include data source, collection time, format and size, etc.
(4) Please add the specific problems and challenges of the findings (or what should be done in future) in the conclusion.
(5) Thematic maps (Appendix A: Sumpplmental Figures) need to be further standardized, such as the integrity of cartographic elements such as the north arrow, scale, legend, etc.
(6) There are some type of typos in your MS. Please double check your text and correct them all.
Author Response
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Please see the attached point-by-point responses.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The adjustments were made in the document.
Author Response
Thank you. Following your and other reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript has been thoroughly proofread for grammatical errors and mistakes. As shown by tracked changes in the "RS_Wang_2023_v3_marked.pdf" file, over three dozen corrections have been made in the revised version. Again, thank you for your time and help to improve my work.
Best Regards,
Haoying
Reviewer 3 Report
The author has resolved all of my previous concerns and therefore I recommend the publication of this manuscript in its current form.
Author Response
Thank you. Following your and other reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript has been thoroughly proofread for grammatical errors and mistakes. As shown by tracked changes in the "RS_Wang_2023_v3_marked.pdf" file, over three dozen corrections have been made in the revised version. Again, thank you for your time and help to improve my work.
Best Regards,
Haoying
Reviewer 4 Report
It seems that the authors have revised it according to their comments.
Author Response
Thank you. Following your and other reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript has been thoroughly proofread for grammatical errors and mistakes. As shown by tracked changes in the "RS_Wang_2023_v3_marked.pdf" file, over three dozen corrections have been made in the revised version. Again, thank you for your time and help to improve my work.
Best Regards,
Haoying
