Peer Review History

Original SubmissionMay 21, 2021
Decision Letter - Vassilis G. Aschonitis, Editor

PONE-D-21-16881

Response of runoff towards land utilization changes in the yellow river basin in Ningxia, China

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Tian,

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Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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"The research has obtained the support from the Priority Research and Projects for Ningxia in China (2020BEG03021) and the First-class Major Foundation of Ningxia Institutions of High Education in China (NXYLXK2017A03)."

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The research has obtained the support from the Priority Research and Projects for Ningxia in China (2020BEG03021) and the First-class Major Foundation of Ningxia Institutions of High Education in China (NXYLXK2017A03)."

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study describes response of runoff towards land utilization changes in the yellow river basin in Ningxia, China. In my opinion, this study is a valuable work In order to maintain the healthy development of Ningxia ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin, and this study is within the scope of the journal. I believe that this manuscript could be acceptable for publication after major revisions as follows:

Specific suggestions:

1. Discussion: The discussion did not go into depth.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Revision 1

Dear Editor and Reviewer,

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning my manuscript. Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to my researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction which I hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. The main correction in the paper and the responds to the Journal and reviewer’s comments are as flowing:

Journal Requirements:

Comment 1: Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming.

Response 1: Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was modified following the format requirements of PLOS ONE's style.

Comment 2: We suggest you thoroughly copyedit your manuscript for language usage, spelling, and grammar.

Response 2: Thank you for your comment. Professionals were invited to modify the language, usage, spelling and grammar of the manuscript. The name of the colleague is Adam Ren that edited my manuscript.

Comment 3: Funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

Response 3: Thank you for your comment. The information of the funding information was removed and included in the cover letter. Please kindly update relevant information in the submission system.

The research has obtained the support from the Priority Research and Projects for Ningxia in China (2020BEG03021) , the First-class Major Foundation of Ningxia Institutions of High Education in China (NXYLXK2021A03), Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia Province (2020AAC03058) and the First-class Discipline Construction Project in Ningxia Universities: Mathematics.

Comment 4: We will update your Data Availability statement to reflect the information you provide in your cover letter.

Response 4: Thank you for your comment. Part of the basic data was included in the cover letter.

Comment 5: Please ensure that you have an ORCID iD and that it is validated in Editorial Manager.

Response 5: Thank you for your comment. The application for ORCID iD was completed with information updated.

Comment 6: We note that Figure(s) 1 and 2 in your submission contain map images which may be copyrighted.

Response 6: Thank you for your comment. Figures 1 and 2 were generated after cutting and data loading, resulting in complete differences from the original figure.

Reviewers' comments:

Comment 1: Discussion: The discussion did not go into depth.

Response 1: Thank you for your comment. A more in-depth analysis of the results and discussion section is performed.

Cultivated land experienced a reduction of 10%, which was all converted into forest land. The runoff was 94.283 million m3, showing a decrease of 254.9 ten thousand m3 and a rate of 2.63%. Cultivated land experienced a reduction of 10%, which was all converted into forest land. The runoff was 94.283 million m3, showing a decrease of 254.9 ten thousand m3 and a rate of 2.63%. Cultivated land experienced a reduction of 10%, which was all converted into forest land. The runoff was 94.283 million m3, showing a decrease of 254.9 ten thousand m3 and a rate of 2.63%.

The significant change of runoff during June - September indicates that the runoff changes substantially during the flood season. Notably, the change reach the maximum from July to August and the minimum from December to February. As shown from the Fig 3, the order of yield and discharge of distinct land use types in the Ningxia section of the Yellow River Basin is that cultivated land is bigger than forestland, which is bigger than grassland in terms of size.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Response to Editor_R1.docx
Decision Letter - Vassilis G. Aschonitis, Editor

Response of Runoff towards Land Use Changes in the Yellow River Basin in Ningxia, China

PONE-D-21-16881R1

Dear Dr. Tian,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: General comments:

To my point of view,the author have revised it all rather well, and the quality of the manuscript has improved substantially. It can be accepted for publication.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Vassilis G. Aschonitis, Editor

PONE-D-21-16881R1

Response of Runoff towards Land Use Changes in the Yellow River Basin in Ningxia, China

Dear Dr. Tian:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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