The patterns and implications of diurnal variations in the d-excess of plant water, shallow soil water and air moisture

Zhao, L.; Wang, L.; Liu, X.; Xiao, H.; Ruan, Y.; Zhou, M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4129-2014

Articles | Volume 18, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4129-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4129-2014

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 10

Research article

|

17 Oct 2014

Research article |

| 17 Oct 2014

The patterns and implications of diurnal variations in the d-excess of plant water, shallow soil water and air moisture

L. Zhao, L. Wang, X. Liu, H. Xiao, Y. Ruan, and M. Zhou

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Final revised paper (published on 17 Oct 2014)
Preprint (discussion started on 28 Apr 2014)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C1425: 'The patterns and implications of diurnal variations in d-excess of plant water, shallow soil water and air moisture', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 May 2014
- AC C1972: 'Reply', Lixin Wang, 22 Jun 2014
RC C1681: 'Zhao et. al. Reivew', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Jun 2014
- AC C1973: 'Reply', Lixin Wang, 22 Jun 2014
  - AC C2067: 'One quick correction in the Reply letter', Lixin Wang, 26 Jun 2014

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (02 Jul 2014) by Fuqiang Tian

AR by Lixin Wang on behalf of the Authors (07 Aug 2014) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (13 Aug 2014) by Fuqiang Tian

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (25 Aug 2014)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

General comments
The revised version of this manuscript has improved significantly. Some minor comments are noted below to help improve readability.
Minor comments:
1. Many small mistakes in language were found in the manuscript. I suggest an through language review by a native English speaker.
2. P3L51: delete “drylands” in the key words section, or give a short description about “drylands” in the text.
3. P7L138-142: “Polygonum viviparum L” should be “Polygonum viviparum L.”, and “Populus euphratica Oliv” should be “Populus euphratica Oliv.”. I think probably it’s better to use “Polygonum viviparum”&“Populus euphratica” or “Polygonum viviparum L.”&“Populus euphratica Oliv.” (but not mixed) to represent the tree of “P.V.”&”P.E.” in the text. Same to other species.
4. P10L211. Please elaborate why “only leaf water δ18O, δD and d-excess values of P.E. at S5-Aug were modeled for this study”?
5. P15L311. Maybe one or two sentence is needed to briefly describe the meteorological condition during the sampling period in the upper reach and lower reach, because cloudy days only occurred in the upper reach during the sampling period. I think authors should mention this information clearly in the text.
6. P15L322. Authors mentioned that “The large difference of d-excess of leaf water between the sunny and cloudy days was found (32.7‰), and the d-excess of leaf water varied from 12.0‰ to 55.7‰…...(Table 5)”. However, what I found from Table 5 is that the difference of d-excess of leaf water between the sunny and cloudy days ranged from -6.6‰ to 55.7‰, and the d-excess of leaf water varied from -114.0‰ to -20.4‰ in sunny days and from -116.9‰ to 11.1‰ in cloudy days.
7. P16 Section 3.4.1. The logic of this section is unclear. Authors gave the correlation between d-excess of leaf water and RH in the upper reaches, but didn’t give the corresponding correlation in the lower reaches. Besides, authors gave the correlation between d-excess of leaf water and RH during sunny days, but didn’t give the corresponding correlation during cloudy days. That’s very difficult to get the point of this section.
In addition, authors mentioned that “During the sunny days, the d-excess of moisture versus RH were -0.36‰/% and -0.31‰/%, respectively, for near the ground and the canopy, which …(Table 7)”. However, I found that the d-excess of moisture versus RH were -0.36‰/% and -0.31‰/%, respectively, for near the ground and the canopy in the upper reaches. Please elaborate such information clearly, otherwise, it will mislead readers.
8. P17L352-353. Does the significantly negative relationships between d-excess of leaf water and T was also found in the lower reaches?
9. P17L371-372. From which figure authors can get the result that “…an opposite pattern between the diurnal variations of d-excess of leaf water and d-excess of moisture”? Please note it.
10. P20L438. “S.Q.” should be “Q.S.”
11. Table 1. The specified sampling data should be added in the column of “Time and interval” for easily understanding the sampling frequency and the meteorological condition during the sampling period.
12. Table 1. Maybe it is better to use “ecosystem type” replace “vegetation type” in the column 2 because “Gobi” is not a type of vegetation.
13. Table 6-9. Authors mentioned that “p<0.001 indicate statistical significance at the 99% significance level, …”. However, I think that p<0.01 indicate statistical significance at the 99% significance level. Please check and correct it.
14. Table 7-9, P17L363-369. Please unify the representation of the significance level by using capital letter P or lowercase letter p. Also unify the representation of the correlation coefficient by using r or R2.
15. Fig. 3. The legend for this figure is unclear, especially for the “xylem water of Q.S.” , “xylem water of P.V.”, “LMWL of the UR” and “”LMWL of the LR.
16. Fig.7. Subfigures e and f are missed or the description of figure caption has a mistake.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (Editor review) (26 Aug 2014) by Fuqiang Tian

AR by Lixin Wang on behalf of the Authors (04 Sep 2014) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (09 Sep 2014) by Fuqiang Tian

AR by Lixin Wang on behalf of the Authors (09 Sep 2014)