Review of

Technical Note: Best of both worlds? Combining undisturbed soil monoliths for indoor runoff experiments

by Ramler and Strauss

General comments:

This is a technical note investigating the possibility to perform indoor runoff experiments using unperturbed rather small soil samples and combined soil samples. The paper is accompanied by a Supplement. The note is reasonably well written but could be improved by clarifying the presentation of the experimental design and by shortening the Discussion section.

Recommendation: major revisions.

Particular comments:

• Soil characteristics (Table 1): TOC is undefined. Key soil characteristics such as porosity, dry density, gravel content, organic matter should be given if they are available. Could this method be applied to other soil types?
• Statistical analysis: differences between experiments are analyzed using statistical metrics. The Methods section does not clearly explain how this is done. For example, H and P (Line 132) are undefined. L. 114: Significance of what? What would have been the results at the 0.01 level?
• Experimental design is unclear. For example, on L. 116, a “second experimental set” is mentioned. What is this? The first line of Table 2 is not complete for understanding the experimental plan. A new Table listing all experiments would be useful.
• Discussion: Section 4.2 is too long, especially for a technical note. Could be more concise.
• The title of the paper could be improved.