Evolution Characteristics of Wetland Landscape Pattern and Its Impact on Carbon Sequestration in Wuhan from 2000 to 2020
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper deals with the relevant topic of studying the carbon sequestration function of urban wetland, considering that wetland ecosystem is an important organic carbon pool on earth challenged by progressive draining and shrinking. The case study of the Wuhan wetland has been developed using the remote sensing image interpretation data from 2000 to 2020 and the CASA model for assessment and spatial-temporal distribution.
The data collection and the quantitative methodology is consistent with the aims of the research. However, to adequate the paper to the audience of the Journal, a significant upgrade is needed regarding:
The literature review needs to be integrated on both the lines of the wetland issues in general and the available models to develop the study, in order to contextualize the study within the ecosystem services international literature and to better demonstrate the consistency of the model applied.
The study area has been poorly described and needs to be integrated with the urban and regional planning scenario as well as the demographic and environmental trends.
The international debate in the field highlights the overlapping of direct and secondary causes of the wetland shrinkage; the discussion presents a simplified and deterministic representation of causes, misinterpreting the complexity of the phenomenon.
The conclusions could benefit from a governance and planning perspective in addressing the needs of preserving the land and water system interactions.
Author Response
Thank you for giving us valuable comments on the revision of the manuscript. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revision in this paper. Please see the attachment.
Best regards
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and suggestions to the author:
Thank you for your paper, I read it with great interest. In fact, rapid urbanization has led to changes in the pattern of urban landscapes, leading to changes in the quality and quantity of landscape services. In the face of global carbon emission reduction efforts, carbon sequestration services are a hot issue for researchers and a practical problem that local governments need to solve urgently. Especially in the context of my country's "dual carbon" goals, carbon sequestration research in Wuhan is of great significance. Using landscape pattern index and CASA model, combined with Spearman correlation analysis, the impact of landscape pattern change on wetland sequestration was discussed from the landscape level. I also found that the list of data used in the study was not complete, for example, the accuracy of the interpolation of meteorological data, the accuracy of the NPP data simulated by the CASA model, and the validation of these data were not clearly disclosed in the paper. In addition, the key underlying data of the article, the landscape pattern index, was obtained without considering the optimal landscape granularity. In addition, the paper does not sufficiently distill the scientific questions studied and the patterns found, and lacks an in-depth discussion of the causes (patterns) of the results. These make the entire paper lack scientific logic in terms of the integrity of the conclusions.
I list some comments and suggestions below:
1. The citation format for “Rashid I et al” in line 44 does not match the citation format for “Festus et al” in line 41. Please check the consistency of the citation format throughout the manuscript.
2. The transfer matrices in rows 214 and 215 are not labeled with area units.
3. In the introduction, the characteristics and innovations of the article are not clear.
4. The number and distribution of meteorological stations used for rasterization of meteorological data, the accuracy of interpolation of meteorological data, and the verification of interpolation results; in addition, the accuracy of the NPP data simulated by the CASA model and the verification of the simulation results are not clearly presented in the paper. These make the conclusion of the whole paper lack scientific logic.
5. Rationalization of scale is the key to the process of landscape pattern and ecological research. When analyzing landscape patterns and ecological processes, grains that are too small can result in too much spatial information about the area and obscure important information, while grains that are too large can result in missing critical details. Is "30.3.1. Landscape pattern index" the best landscape granularity? Will the landscape pattern index based on this scale affect the credibility of subsequent research results?
6. The color of the labeled data on line 134 is inconsistent with the color of the full-text citation.
7. The description of change in area of ​​a landscape type in lines 195-198 could have used a quantitative description to reflect as much as possible the change in area of ​​a particular landscape. Quantitative description does not use qualitative description and only analyzes the increase or decrease of the area, but reflects the rigor of scientific papers.
8. The lateral mode transfer matrix in rows 214, 215 is not labeled with area units.
9. In Figure 4, row 228, the starting values ​​for the different carbon sequestration levels are not indicated in the legend. Readers do not know the breakpoints of different levels of carbon sequestration in the article, and cannot make analogies with other similar research results.
10. The number of "181. Result" in line 3 is wrongly marked, it should be "4. Result".
11. The topic of the paper is well chosen. The author also did a lot of investigation and data processing, and achieved some results. However, the scientific question (influence of landscape pattern indices on carbon sequestration) and the pattern of findings (characteristics of changes in landscape pattern and changes in carbon sequestration) have not been sufficiently refined, and the reasons for their results (patterns) have not been discussed in depth. Only using Spearman correlation analysis to reveal the impact of carbon sequestration in Wuhan from the landscape level is not convincing. It is suggested to try to combine the class level with the landscape level to reveal the pattern of garden pattern changes in Wuhan, and then explore the reasons for the changes in landscape pattern, so as to reveal the impact of landscape pattern on carbon sequestration services.
Author Response
Thank you for giving us valuable comments on the revision of the manuscript. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revision in this paper. Please see the attachment.
Best regards
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Manuscript ID: land-2212665
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Evolution characteristics of wetland landscape pattern and its impact on carbon sequestration in Wuhan from 2000 to 2020
Authors: Jufang Song , Ruidong Zhang , Yiran Wang , Jingnan Huang *
Dear authors
The manuscript entitled " Evolution characteristics of wetland landscape pattern and its impact on carbon sequestration in Wuhan from 2000 to 2020" has studied the the dynamic change characteristics and rules of modern urban wetland landscape by analyzing the key landscape pattern index of Wuhan wetland in recent 20 years, estimate the amount of wetland carbon sequestration, and explore the impact of landscape pattern change on wetland carbon sequestration function through CASA model. Statistical analyses have done. Results showed the total wetland area in Wuhan decreased by 158.99 km² from 2000 to 2020, also the areas of lakes and marshes dramatically decreased by 33.32 and 39.52 km², respectively, and the area of beaches increased slightly by 9.87km². Results revealed that the total carbon sequestration in Wuhan first decreased and then increased, among which the carbon sequestration in wetland was the lowest in 2010 (571,900 t). Authors concluded that the the larger wetland area, wider coverage of large-scale wetland, more concentrated and denser distribution, and more irregular and diverse wetland will increase the carbon sequestration amount of Wuhan wetland and will thus improve the carbon sink function of urban wetland system.
Generally, the quality of manuscript is well written and suitable. The subject of the research work is original and has been able to provide a lot of new information in the field of the evaluation of Wuhan wetland carbon sequestration ability. The authors were able to answer the research questions due to the review of suitable sources, the study method of the region and the sufficient number of samples, and there is no need for additional items in the method and also other controls. The authors were able to match the research conclusions well with the evidence and arguments presented and address the main question raised. References were well presented and good previous researches were listed, however, some related references proposed that should be mentioned in the manuscript. Tables and figures are well organized and logically consistent with the content of the text.
The study design is robust and the topic fits well to the scope of the journal. The manuscript is generally clearly designed, written and illustrated. The discussion of the manuscript also well written. I recommend this paper for publishing after addressing some minor concerns presented on the PDF file.
Best regards
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you for giving us valuable comments on the revision of the manuscript. We have studied the comments carefully and have made revision in this paper. Please see the attachment.
Best regards
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The suggested integration have been included in the paper.
Reviewer 2 Report
From my points of view, the work is well-done and provides interesting results from the Impacts on changing landscape pattern of carbon sequestration and thus it merits to be published.
