Structure and Phenology of Herbaceous Stratum in the Sahelian Rangelands of Senegal

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

There are more studies on grass structure and phenology under different treatments, but it is also necessary to collect that data from different areas of the world, from this perspective this article is still very necessary, the article as a whole is well written, but my following suggestions for revision.

1. In the abstract section, the last sentence needs to state the most important findings of your study and the implications for the grassland researcher or grazing production.

2. Keywords need to be listed in alphabetical order，Please also consider whether your keywords are representative enough for your article.

3. Study Area part, Please provide more background data on the study area, e.g. vegetation type, vegetation cover, soil tyee, Soil carbon and nitrogen contents etc., so that it is more useful for other model researchers to make use of your article.

4. Figure 1. should add latitude and longitude

5. The  Conclusions section is not sufficient, Please rewrite to show your most important results, and what specific use for assessing the effects of grazing and sealing on grassland.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

We want to thank the reviewer for their feedback.

In red, the comments of the reviewers and in black or answer see attached document

We also put the manuscript with track change

We will do English correction if the manuscript is accepted

Sincerely

Simon

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The study attempts to describe the structure and phenology of the herbaceous stratum. However, in its current form, the MS is not suitable for publication.

 

Details as below:

 

Introduction

 

From the Introduction, the aim and the innovation of the study are not present well.

 

The information about grazing and fencing impact on herbaceous stratum should be provided, as well as that on CH4 and N2O flux and possible mechanisms.

 

More information about herbaceous structure and phenology, particularly their relationships, should be provided.

 

Methods

 

More information about climate, grazing and fencing details, vegetation and soil properties should be provided. It is important for this study, especially climate.

 

 

 

Results

 

It seems that the results focused on describing the structure and phenology. No data analysis was presented. More analysis should be done about the effects of grazing/fencing, and the relationships between structure and phenology, as well as how they going with time.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

We want to thank the reviewer for their feedback.

In red, the comments of the reviewers and in black or answer see attached document

We also put the manuscript with track change

We will do English correction if the manuscript is accepted

Sincerely

Simon

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript describes the structure and phenology of HERBACEOUS in the Sahelian rangelands OF Senegal using two years of measurements. The manuscript needs to be revised with regard to its structure which I commented on below. Besides this issue, I have a major concern about the novelty of this work. While the authors provide valuable ground measurements, I wonder what is newly added to the previous literature. Nowadays, using satellite images, vegetation phenology can be assessed for several years in large areas. Check this paper for example (https://doi.org/10.1080/10106049209354356 ). Given the availability of such a technique, what is the justification for such measurements and data collection?

Other comments:

The introduction section is very short and does not provide a coherent description of the current research and previous literature and does not meet the journal standard.  

Figure 1 should be provided with lat/lon information on the plot.

The manuscript figures are not consistent. Figures 3 -4-5-7 have a different style compared to 6 and 8. Please make sure to use a similar standard format for all the figures.

The references in the discussion section need to be modified. For example, the authors explain that:

“This result confirms that grazing decreases phytomass production in a steppe formation [15,16], even in a savanna [17], and that animal husbandry can cause overgrazing that is reflected in a reduction in productivity [18]”. Why the authors used references for the results achieved in their analysis? If the point here is to compare this research results with other work, then use another sentence and clarify.

The conclusion section is written as if it’s part of the results and discussion. This section also needs to be revised. Provide a summary and the key conclusions of the manuscript in this section. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

We want to thank the reviewer for their feedback.

In red, the comments of the reviewers and in black or answer see attached document

We also put the manuscript with track change

We will do English correction if the manuscript is accepted

Sincerely

Simon

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has made good revisions to my advices and I think it is acceptable for publication.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript can be accept in current form as the author has revised the it carefully according to the comment.