Modelling of Water and Nitrogen Flow in a Rain-Fed Ridge-Furrow Maize System with Plastic Mulch

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The theme presented by this article is of interest to the scientific community since it approaches a matter usualy discussed. However, I missed some data about rainfall and soil temperature what could improve discussions and add to the research a more complete understanding of the processes.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thanks for the evaluation and suggestion. We our suggestions are, we have improved the manuscript according to your suggestions. We improved this manuscript from all the part, especially the “Materials and Methods”, “Results” and “Discussion”.  And the question you mentioned was completely added and corrected, they are showed in revised manuscript and the Word uploaded, thanks for your reviewr again.

Best Regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The topic is original and interesting. However, I could not really understand the M&M section. It was not clear for me if authors took soil, water or gases measurements, especially for N. 

Apparently, there is a confusion between denitrification and NH3 volatilization in the Introduction. Under waterlogging you have N2O emissions, not particularly NH3 (although they can also occur).

Methods are not described, only a model is referred. In M&M, denitrification measurements are not referred, but in Fig. 7 some data are presented. Therefore, I could not finalize the reading of Results section. Besides, the presentation of figures need improvements. It is not explained why data for NH4 in Fig. 3 were only taken in 0-30 cm depth whereas other measurements were taken down to 100 or 160 cm depth. It was not explained why soil depth was not the same for both NH4 and NO3 measurements. Fig. 6 was not clearly explained. What do you mean by "Cumulative", including for plant?

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thanks for the evaluation and suggestion. We our suggestions are, we have improved the manuscript according to your suggestions. We improved this manuscript from all the part, especially the “Materials and Methods”, “Results” and “Discussion”.  And the question you mentioned was completely added and corrected, they are showed in revised manuscript and the Word uploaded, thanks for your reviewr again.

Best regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

 

The reviewed article concerns the modelling of water and nitrates in soil. Ridge-furrow maize system with plastic mulch was studied using Hydrus-2D model. The study was conducted over two consecutive years (2013 and 2014). The reviewed manuscript is thematically appropriate for “Land” journal. The introduction provides sufficient background and supports the research topic of the study. The description of the research methodology used is inaccurate.

Major comments:

In my opinion, the presented research methodology is described very imprecise. The Authors of the paper use a two-dimensional model of the flow of water and nitrogen in the soil without describing the area of modeling. The boundary and initial conditions adopted in the modelling are not presented. Although the supplemented additional material contains a description of the model (equations used in the Hydrus-2d model), there is no basic information about the values of parameters adopted in modeling, e.g. LAI, depth of the root zone, etc. In the supplementary material, precipitation values are presented, but evapotranspiration is missing. For me, the sentence in supplementary material "Validation was performed using the observed data of 2019 without changing" (line 105-106) is not understandable. Some of the parameters used in the model were calibrated on data from 2018, but there is no description of how the calibration process took place.

For the purpose of making a clear description of the research methodology (modeling), I would suggest to the Authors of the article to read the following work, which concerns similar issues:

Zhao, Y., Zhai, X., Wang, Z., Li, H., Jiang, R., Hill, R. L., ... & Hao, F. (2018). Simulation of soil water and heat flow in ridge cultivation with plastic film mulching system on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Agricultural Water Management, 202, 99-112.

 

Minor comments:

 1.      I propose to supplement the title with the word „flow” – Modelling of water and nitrogen flow…”

2.      In table 1 parameter λ is the dispersivity ? or pore connectivity parameter

3.      In table 2 description of DL and DT is missing

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thanks for the evaluation and suggestion. We our suggestions are, we have improved the manuscript according to your suggestions. We improved this manuscript from all the part, especially the “Materials and Methods”, “Results” and “Discussion”.  And the question you mentioned was completely added and corrected, they are showed in revised manuscript and the Word uploaded, thanks for your reviewr again.

Best regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript seems to be ready for publication. The approach is importante for the enrichment of the knowledge of technics applied to agriculture and their effects to soil properties.

Author Response

Thanks for the evaluation and affirmation. We have done a few small corrections to the manuscript, such as dimensions in the figures, and some missed information about symbols and methods.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Authors improved the manuscript according to Reviewers' recommendations.

Author Response

Thanks for the evaluation and suggestion. We have done some corrections to the manuscript, such as dimensions in the figures, and some missed information about symbols and methods.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Authors of the article in the new version took into account all my comments.

 Minor comments:

-        -   Line 131 “Root depth and leaf area index were measured ..”, please specified how, which method was used for measurements

-         -  Line 126 “five typical layers with 10, 30, 60, 100, and 160 cm,”, please specified layers ? (+5-10 cm; 10-30 cm)

-     -  Equations (14) an(15) required explanation of symbols

-      -   In Figure 1, please mark the dimensions,

-       -   The caption of Figure 2 needs to be completed, which means a and b

Author Response

Thanks for the evaluation and suggestion. Following your suggestions, we have improved the manuscript, such as dimensions in the figures, and some missed information about symbols and methods. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx