Topography, Soil Elemental Stoichiometry and Landscape Structure Determine the Nitrogen and Phosphorus Loadings of Agricultural Catchments in the Subtropics

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Honestly, this manuscript is prepared with enough quality. The general evaluation had been given in the Review report form. Only few points need more consideration.

1. Page 1 line 27, I don't think the patterns was approporiate here as it stands with the other two terms in  "(e.g., patterns, ditches and streams)". 

2. Page 9, The title of the table 5 is floating away, try to fix it.  In addition, I don't understand what CNR， CPR， NPR are for？And a standard deviation was needed. Or these part can be placed in the front of hydrological measurements.

3. The subtitles in the current results section are more like discussions while the subtitles in the current discussions are very simple and not Thought-provoking.

Author Response

I put the reply in the attachment, thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Title: Topography, soil elemental stoichiometry and landscape structure determine the nitrogen and phosphorus loadings of agricultural catchments in the subtropics

 

Author: Yong Li, Yi Wang, Ji Liu, Meihui Wang, Jianlin Shen, Xinliang Liu

 

This paper investigated nine catchments in the subtropics of China, were to examine the relationships between the N and P loadings to receiving waters and the topographic, soil and landscape characteristics of catchments, and identify the most influential N and P loading pathways via soil and landscape. The topic is interesting and helpful for catchment environment management. In general, the logic is clear, the method is appropriate and the contents are complete. There are some revision suggestions for the authors.  

 

1. In the section of INTRODUCTION, there is little information on the study area cited from previous research results.

 

2. L121-122, L125-126: These Data should give the citing source.

 

3. What is the basis for choosing the five latent factors (TOPO, SOIL, LAND, NLOSS and PLOSS) in the construction process of PLS-SEM? Some other factors such as climate, human activities, hydrology and so on also affect the nitrogen and phosphorus loadings of agricultural catchments.

 

4. Some data are the annual average value in the paper, such as TN data in Dataset S1. Are there any differences of the relationships between the N and P loadings and the topographic, soil and landscape characteristics in different seasons. These seasonal variations of analytic results should be discussed in the paper.

 

5. Table5 and Table 6 are missing in the paper.

 

6. The quality of data controls the results. The amount of data should explain clearly in the paper.

 

7. I think the discussion in section 4.1 is an objective description, without too much discussion value. The background information could be put in the section of INTRODUTION.

 

8. L531-534: “our data and correlation analyses suggested that topography appeared to play a stronger role in determining the N and P loadings to receiving waters than the soil and landscape factors.”

Topography affects the distributions of soil and landscape. These factors are relevant. It is inaccurate to compare the influence degree of topography, soil and landscape factors.

Author Response

I put the reply in the attachment, thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Very nicely written and the presentation of the output is very clearly mentioned. 

I could find that in all the catchments, the sum of sand, silt and clay is less than 100%. So, are there any other soil separates found in the study?

 

 

Author Response

I put the reply in the attachment, thank you.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf