Variations in Soil Seed Banks in Sedge Peatlands across an Altitude Gradient

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript by Qi Chen and co-authors present a new study which examines The Variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands across an altitude gradient. The thematic is of interest and authors did al lot of assessments and data analysis.

Comments:

 

The Abstract should be more informative. There is no motive for the research indicated. Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study. The abstract deserves to be implemented with more details on results.

The keywords are adequate.

The problem and research originality are hardly found in introduction. Description of the problem is very poor (superficial). A lot of attention is paid for the climate and environmental change, however there is no literature analysis provided about the variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands mentioned in the topic „Variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands across an altitude gradient“. It would be worth to represent knowledge and perception about the examined problem in introduction part. The introduction contains a lot of statements which are very general.

Materials and Methods. Please improve the part of materials and methods. What method was used to determine the species composition in the sedge peatlands? Please provide the data of species composition in the supplementary file. What method was used to determine the species composition in the soil seed bank? Please provide the data of species composition of soil seed bank in the supplementary file.

Results. Provide a precise description of the experimental results. Results should be improved and developed (too little analysis of the data in 3.2; 3.3 and 3.4). The figures and tables, please always explain all abbreviations, even if they were explained in the text. Please make sure that a table or figure can be fully understood even without reading the text. In Figures, please name all axes. Figures must be clear without description – clear names of axis, detailed notes, etc.

The discussion are adequate.

Conclusion. Just at the very end of the conclusion there is a sentense which has no sense, please, delete this sentense.

Author Response

4 September-2024

 

Dear Dr. Fannie.He, Dear editor,

 

We have carefully reviewed the comments of the editors and reviewers and revised it thoroughly. Attached please find our point to point replies to each of the reviewer/editor’s comments. We are confident this manuscript has been significantly improved and is ready for your further review. Please let me know if you have any question about this revision.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Guodong Wang

 

 

COMMENTS FROM EDITORS AND REVIEWERS

 

Reviewer #1:

 

The manuscript by Qi Chen and co-authors present a new study which examines The Variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands across an altitude gradient. The thematic is of interest and authors did a lot of assessments and data analysis.

The Abstract should be more informative. There is no motive for the research indicated. Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study. The abstract deserves to be implemented with more details on results.

Response: We rewrote the abstract as suggested.

“As a key component of the ecosystem, the soil seed bank plays a vital role in the evolution and renewal of plant communities. Although the pattern and mechanisms of influence of soil seed bank along the altitudinal gradient have been reported, most studies have focused on forest, grassland and alpine meadow ecosystems. The pattern and factors of soil seed banks across the altitudinal gradient in sedge peatlands remain largely unknown. Through vegetation surveys and seed germination experiments, we studied the changes in aboveground vegetation and soil seed bank in sedge peatlands at altitudes ranging from 300 m to 1300 m in Changbai Mountain, China, and discussed the direct and indirect effects of climatic factors, soil properties and aboveground vegetation on soil seed bank. The results showed that the richness and density of the soil seed bank of sedge peatlands decreased with the altitude. Similarly, aboveground vegetation richness and density declined with altitude. Spearman correlation analysis showed that soil seed bank richness and density were mainly correlated with mean annual temperature, soil total phosphorus and ammonia nitrogen, and plant composition and richness of aboveground vegetation. Structural equation model analysis showed that climatic factors and aboveground vegetation directly affected seed bank richness, while soil properties indirectly affected it by directly affecting aboveground vegetation. Climatic factors, soil properties, and aboveground vegetation directly affected soil seed bank density, and soil properties indirectly affected it by directly affecting aboveground vegetation. This finding enhances our understanding of the altitude patterns of the soil seed bank in sedge peatlands and the response to future climate and environmental changes.”

The problem and research originality are hardly found in introduction. Description of the problem is very poor (superficial). A lot of attention is paid for the climate and environmental change, however there is no literature analysis provided about the variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands mentioned in the topic „Variations in soil seed banks in sedge peatlands across an altitude gradient. It would be worth to represent knowledge and perception about the examined problem in introduction part. The introduction contains a lot of statements which are very general.
Response: We added more information to introduction as suggested.

Line57-63: “The discrepancy in these findings is due to the differences in vegetation types or ecosystems. Most previous studies on changes in soil seed banks along altitudinal gradients have focused on forest [6,12], grassland [7,13] and alpine meadow ecosystems [3,15]. Peatlands, as one of the most important terrestrial ecosystems, the distribution of vegetation types is non-zonal, which may have some influence on the soil seed bank [17-19]. However, the dynamics of the soil seed bank with altitude in peatlands remain unknown.”

Line64-84: “Previous studies have shown that the unique environmental conditions of peatlands, such as higher humidity and SOC, lower nutrients and pH, have an important influence on the establishment and maintenance of soil seed banks [17-19]. Higher SOC storage has a positive feedback effect on vegetation productivity by increasing soil water holding capacity and maintaining soil fertility, which can be beneficial to the soil seed bank [17,18]. Although low nutrient environments limit the growth of plant species, they can promote the reproduction of certain species, such as sedges [17,20,21]. Changes in pH can affect the species composition of aboveground vegetation. Cyperaceae plants in peatlands tend to grow in environments with higher pH [19]. Climate change is also an important factor affecting the soil seed bank. Rising temperatures can stimulate seed dormancy and increase seed germination rates, while precipitation can not only stimulate seed germination but also accelerate seed mortality by increasing the activity of pathogenic fungi [1,3,15]. Aboveground vegetation is the main source of the soil seed bank. Typically, changes in species composition and cover of aboveground vegetation will have a significant impact on the soil seed bank [2-4]. Although these studies have revealed the influence mechanism of soil seed bank, existing research is still not systematic and comprehensive. The formation and maintenance of soil seed banks is a complex ecological process involving the interaction of many biotic and abiotic factors. Further research is required to elucidate the ways in which peatland climate, soil and vegetation characteristics change with altitude, and the ways in which these factors interact and drive changes in soil seed banks.”

 

Materials and Methods. Please improve the part of materials and methods.

Response: We improved the part of materials and methods as suggested.

What method was used to determine the species composition in the sedge peatlands?

Response: The species composition of aboveground vegetation was determined by the vegetation survey and the corresponding explanation was added in L107-112.

“Three 1 m × 1 m points near the soil seed bank sampling locations were set up at each of the three plots in each site. The species name, density, the coverage and height of each individual species, and the total coverage of standing vegetation were recorded at each point. The vegetation in the quadrat was identified according to the description in ' Wild Vascular Plants of Wetlands in Northeast China '[23].”

Please provide the data of species composition in the supplementary file.

Response: We added the aboveground vegetation species composition data to the supplementary document.

What method was used to determine the species composition in the soil seed bank?

Response: We added a sentence in L128-131.

“Seedlings germinated in greenhouse were identified according to the description in ' Wild Vascular Plants in Wetlands of Northeast China ' [23].”

Please provide the data of species composition of soil seed bank in the supplementary file.
Response: We added the species composition of the soil seed bank in the supplementary document as suggested.

Provide a precise description of the experimental results. Results should be improved and developed (too little analysis of the data in 3.2; 3.3 and 3.4).

Response: We rewrote some contents of the results as suggested.

“3.1. Climate and soil property change with the altitude

As the altitude increased from 327 m to 1280 m, MAT declined from 3.34°C to 0.96°C, and MAP rose from 561.25 mm to 793 mm. TP had a decreasing trend with the altitude (Table 1). SWC was the highest at 900 m (90.18 %) and lowest in 327 m (82.36 %). Soil was acidic in all sites, with the highest pH (6.01) in 540 m and the lowest pH (4.66) at 900 m. SOC was high (≥ 30 %) in all sites. TN (21.01 mg/g) and NO3^--N (2.26 mg/g) were higher at 540 mthan other sites. AP was the highest at 900 m (14.89 mg/kg) and lowest in 1005 m (5.98 mg/kg).

3.2. Vegetation and soil seed bank change with the altitude

The vegetation survey recorded 51 species belonging to 29 families and 39 genera. Among them, Cyperaceae species are dominant, mainly including Carex meyeriana, Carex schmidtii, Carex lasiocarpa and Carex limosa (Table. S1). The richness and species density of aboveground vegetation declined with altitude (Fig. 2). As the dominant functional group, the density of sedge species decreased with the altitude (Fig. 2).

A total of 46 species were identified from the seedlings germinated in the greenhouse, belonging to 25 families and 36 genera. Among them, Cyperaceae species and Juncusiaceae species are dominant, mainly including Carex meyeriana, Carex schmidtii, Juncus effusus, Eleocharis dulcis and so on (Table. S2). Soil seed bank richness and density declined with the altitude (Fig. 3). Seed density of dominant sedge species decreased with the altitude (Fig. 3).

3.3. Relationship between climate, soil property, aboveground vegetation, and soil seed bank

The soil seed bank demonstrates significant correlations with climatic conditions, soil characteristics, and aboveground vegetation. Specifically, species richness in the soil seed bank is positively correlated with MAT, TP, NH₄⁺-N, VR, and species composition (NMDS1). Conversely, it shows a negative correlation with SWC and SOC. Furthermore, the density of the soil seed bank shows a significant positive correlation with MAT, TP, NH₄⁺-N, VR, VD, and species composition (NMDS1).

3.4. Effects of climate, soil property, aboveground vegetation on soil seed bank

The SEM adequately fit our data (GoF = 0.65; Fig. 5). SEM analysis showed that climatic factors and aboveground vegetation directly affected soil seed bank richness, while soil properties indirectly affected soil seed bank richness by directly affecting the aboveground vegetation (Fig. 5). Climate factors, aboveground vegetation, and soil properties directly influence seed density. Additionally, soil properties indirectly affect soil seed bank density by influencing aboveground vegetation (Fig. 5).”

The figures and tables, please always explain all abbreviations, even if they were explained in the text. Please make sure that a table or figure can be fully understood even without reading the text. In Figures, please name all axes. Figures must be clear without description – clear names of axis, detailed notes, etc.

Response: We added more information below each figure.

“Figure 2. The relationship between species richness (a), species density (b), sedge species density (c) of aboveground vegetation and the altitude in sedge peatlands of the Changbai Mountain. A linear regression was shown with the 95 % confidence interval of the fit.

Figure 3. The relationship between species richness (a), total seed density (b) and seed density of sedge species (c) of soil seed banks and the altitude in sedge peatlands in the Changbai Mountain. A linear regression was shown with the 95 % confidence interval of the fit.

Figure 4. The relationship between climate, soil properties, aboveground vegetation and soil seed banks in Sedge peatlands of the Changbai Mountain. The pairwise correlation of these variables is represented by the color gradient, which represents the spearman correlation coefficient. SD, seed density of soil seed banks; SR, species richness of soil seed banks; VR, species richness of aboveground vegetation; VD, species density of aboveground vegetation; NMDS1, NMDS1 score of vegetation species composition; SWC, soil water content; SOC, soil organic carbon; TN, total nitrogen; TP, total phosphorus; AP, available phosphorus; NH₄⁺-N, ammonium nitrogen; NO₃^--N, nitrate nitrogen.

Figure. 5. Partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for the effects of climate factors (MAT, MAP), soil properties (SWC, pH, SOC, NH₄⁺-N, NO₃^--N), aboveground vegetation (VR, NMDS1) on species richness and seed density of soil seed banks. The red line and the blue line indicate positive and negative effects, respectively, and the dotted line indicates no significant effect. The linewidth is proportional to the effect intensity. VR, species richness of aboveground vegetation; NMDS1, NMDS1 score of vegetation species composition; SWC, soil water content; SOC, soil organic carbon; TP, total phosphorus; NH₄⁺-N, ammonium nitroge”

Conclusion. Just at the very end of the conclusion there is a sentence which has no sense, please, delete this sentence.

Response: We deleted this sentence.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Review for diversity-3174748

Soil seed banks and their ecology is a timeless topic, that requires the research carried out almost all the time, as the structure of soil seed banks may vary in space and time due to many ecological attributes. The authors present an interesting study, that is worth publishing, nevertheless, the issues must be addressed.

General comments:

Introduction is very short and kind of plain. Also, I lack the use of the most prominent literature sources in this paragraph also in the references.

Please correct the English language and make some terms more consistent. For example, in the beginning authors use the term soil seed bank, whereas in later paragraphs only seed bank remains. I would suggest using soil seed bank throughout the text. I have a concern on statistical analyses used in the paper – it seems that authors should employ a different kind of model – GLM or GLMM for this kind of data. As for now, these linear relationships between some environmental variables are just not right and much more sensitive model must be employed.

Also, each section is ending with the figure, and there is no explanation below it. This must be corrected.

Specific comments:

Line 54: Maybe authors could specify Carex species in particular?

Line 85: Were the seedlings identified to species or genus level? Please specify this, because afterwards authors mention specific number of plant species recorded during this experiment.

Lines: 98-99: This should go in the section above - 2.1. Also, please specify these terms - richness and density. Could you provide a reference for these indices? Are these even indices? Because of what is provided in the graphs below (Fig. 2 and 3) it seems that they're indices as no dimensions are used in the y axis.

Lines 121-124: The language of text in these lines is very dry and not well presented. By saying that soil was acidic, to what authors refer? I see that authors put everything on the table, but still some information must be discussed and presented exhaustively, even if it’s basic.

Lines 133-147: The whole paragraph seems very shallow and not explanatory at all. For example, “A total of 51 species was found during the vegetation survey. “ and „A total of 49 species was found during the greenhouse experiment.“ So, was there a difference between these taxa? Maybe there were some taxa found in the greenhouse experiment, but not recorded in the aboveground vegetation?

Lines 160-162: These sentences don’t make sense and are just too complicated.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The language in general lacks readiness – the sentences are very simple and not explanatory.  

Author Response

4 September-2024

 

Dear Dr. Fannie.He, Dear editor,

 

We have carefully reviewed the comments of the editors and reviewers and revised it thoroughly. Attached please find our point to point replies to each of the reviewer/editor’s comments. We are confident this manuscript has been significantly improved and is ready for your further review. Please let me know if you have any question about this revision.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Guodong Wang

 

 

COMMENTS FROM EDITORS AND REVIEWERS

Reviewer #2:

 

Soil seed banks and their ecology is a timeless topic, that requires the research carried out almost all the time, as the structure of soil seed banks may vary in space and time due to many ecological attributes. The authors present an interesting study, that is worth publishing, nevertheless, the issues must be addressed.

General comments:

 

Introduction is very short and kind of plain. Also, I lack the use of the most prominent literature sources in this paragraph also in the references.

Response: We added more information to introduction as suggested.

Line57-63: “The discrepancy in these findings is due to the differences in vegetation types or ecosystems. Most previous studies on changes in soil seed banks along altitudinal gradients have focused on forest [6,12], grassland [7,13] and alpine meadow ecosystems [3,15]. Peatlands, as one of the most important terrestrial ecosystems, the distribution of vegetation types is non-zonal, which may have some influence on the soil seed bank [17-19]. However, the dynamics of the soil seed bank with altitude in peatlands remain unknown.”

Line64-84: “Previous studies have shown that the unique environmental conditions of peatlands, such as higher humidity and SOC, lower nutrients and pH, have an important influence on the establishment and maintenance of soil seed banks [17-19]. Higher SOC storage has a positive feedback effect on vegetation productivity by increasing soil water holding capacity and maintaining soil fertility, which can be beneficial to the soil seed bank [17,18]. Although low nutrient environments limit the growth of plant species, they can promote the reproduction of certain species, such as sedges [17,20,21]. Changes in pH can affect the species composition of aboveground vegetation. Cyperaceae plants in peatlands tend to grow in environments with higher pH [19]. Climate change is also an important factor affecting the soil seed bank. Rising temperatures can stimulate seed dormancy and increase seed germination rates, while precipitation can not only stimulate seed germination but also accelerate seed mortality by increasing the activity of pathogenic fungi [1,3,15]. Aboveground vegetation is the main source of the soil seed bank. Typically, changes in species composition and cover of aboveground vegetation will have a significant impact on the soil seed bank [2-4]. Although these studies have revealed the influence mechanism of soil seed bank, existing research is still not systematic and comprehensive. The formation and maintenance of soil seed banks is a complex ecological process involving the interaction of many biotic and abiotic factors. Further research is required to elucidate the ways in which peatland climate, soil and vegetation characteristics change with altitude, and the ways in which these factors interact and drive changes in soil seed banks.”

 

Please correct the English language and make some terms more consistent. For example, in the beginning authors use the term soil seed bank, whereas in later paragraphs only seed bank remains. I would suggest using soil seed bank throughout the text.

Response: We checked and revised the whole document as suggested to make it clear and logic. We improved the manuscript carefully.

I have a concern on statistical analyses used in the paper – it seems that authors should employ a different kind of model – GLM or GLMM for this kind of data. As for now, these linear relationships between some environmental variables are just not right and much more sensitive model must be employed.

Response: We considered your suggestion carefully. We test the normality of the dependent variables of linear regression and find that they are normally distributed. Therefore, our data meet the requirements for linear regression. We also used the generalised linear model to fit the relationship between soil seed bank, aboveground vegetation and altitude and found that the analysis results were similar to linear regression. Therefore, we finally adopt the linear regression model.

Also, each section is ending with the figure, and there is no explanation below it. This must be corrected

Response: We added more information below each figure.

“Figure 2. The relationship between species richness (a), species density (b), sedge species density (c) of aboveground vegetation and the altitude in sedge peatlands of the Changbai Mountain. A linear regression was shown with the 95 % confidence interval of the fit.

Figure 3. The relationship between species richness (a), total seed density (b) and seed density of sedge species (c) of soil seed banks and the altitude in sedge peatlands in the Changbai Mountain. A linear regression was shown with the 95 % confidence interval of the fit.

Figure 4. The relationship between climate, soil properties, aboveground vegetation and soil seed banks in Sedge peatlands of the Changbai Mountain. The pairwise correlation of these variables is represented by the color gradient, which represents the spearman correlation coefficient. SD, seed density of soil seed banks; SR, species richness of soil seed banks; VR, species richness of aboveground vegetation; VD, species density of aboveground vegetation; NMDS1, NMDS1 score of vegetation species composition; SWC, soil water content; SOC, soil organic carbon; TN, total nitrogen; TP, total phosphorus; AP, available phosphorus; NH₄⁺-N, ammonium nitrogen; NO₃^--N, nitrate nitrogen.

Figure. 5. Partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) for the effects of climate factors (MAT, MAP), soil properties (SWC, pH, SOC, NH₄⁺-N, NO₃^--N), aboveground vegetation (VR, NMDS1) on species richness and seed density of soil seed banks. The red line and the blue line indicate positive and negative effects, respectively, and the dotted line indicates no significant effect. The linewidth is proportional to the effect intensity. VR, species richness of aboveground vegetation; NMDS1, NMDS1 score of vegetation species composition; SWC, soil water content; SOC, soil organic carbon; TP, total phosphorus; NH₄⁺-N, ammonium nitroge”

Specific comments:

Line 54: Maybe authors could specify Carex species in particular?

Response: We added more information to this sentence.

Line 86-88: “Sedge peatland covered over 70% of the peatlands in this region. The tussock-forming carex species are dominant species in these peatlands [22], such as Carex meyeriana, Carex schmidtii, Carex limosa and Carex lasiocarpa.”

Line 85: Were the seedlings identified to species or genus level? Please specify this, because afterwards authors mention specific number of plant species recorded during this experiment.

Response: We rewrote this sentence to make it clearer.

“During the germination experiment, the germinated species were recorded and cut from each pot every two weeks.”

Lines: 98-99: This should go in the section above 2.1.

Response: We moved this sentence to the end of Part 2.1.

Also, please specify these terms richness and density. Could you provide a reference for these indices? Are these even indices? Because of what is provided in the graphs below (Fig. 2 and 3) it seems that they're indices as no dimensions are used in the y axis.

Response: We added more information and relate references to explained.

Line 110-119:

“The vegetation in the quadrat was identified according to the description in ' Wild Vascular Plants of Wetlands in Northeast China '[23]. Species richness refers to the number of different species that exist in a specific area. It reflects the degree of species diversity in the ecosystem [24]. Density is the number of individuals of a species in a given time and space. It reflects the distribution of the species in the ecosystem and the size of the population [39]. Richness (VR) and density (VD) of the aboveground vegetation were calculated for each site. During the seedling germination experiment, the mean value of species and seedlings germinated from the 30 pots for each site were calculated as soil seed bank richness (SR) and density (SD), respectively [3-4].”

 

Lines 121-124: The language of text in these lines is very dry and not well presented. By saying that soil was acidic, to what authors refer? I see that authors put everything on the table, but still some information must be discussed and presented exhaustively, even if it’s basic.

Response: We added more information in results.

“As the altitude increased from 327 m to 1280 m, MAT declined from 3.34°C to 0.96°C, and MAP rose from 561.25 mm to 793 mm. TP had a decreasing trend with the altitude (Table 1). SWC was the highest at 900 m (90.18 %) and lowest in 327 m(82.36 %). Soil was acidic in all sites, with the highest pH (6.01) in 540 m and the lowest pH (4.66) at 900 m. SOC was high (≥ 30 %) in all sites. TN (21.01 mg/g) and NO₃^--N (2.26 mg/g) were higher at 540 mthan other sites. AP was the highest at 900 m (14.89 mg/kg) and lowest in 1005 m (5.98 mg/kg).”

Lines 133-147: The whole paragraph seems very shallow and not explanatory at all. For example, “A total of 51 species was found during the vegetation survey. “ and, A total of 49 species was found during the greenhouse experiment.“ So, was there a difference between these taxa? Maybe there were some taxa found in the greenhouse experiment, but not recorded in the aboveground vegetation?

Response: We added more information to the results, and added the composition data of aboveground vegetation species and soil seed banks to the supplementary document.

L177-181: “The vegetation survey recorded 51 species belonging to 29 families and 39 genera. Among them, Cyperaceae species are dominant, mainly including Carex meyeriana, Carex schmidtii, Carex lasiocarpa and Carex limosa (Table. S1). The richness and species density of aboveground vegetation declined with altitude (Fig. 2). As the dominant functional group, the density of sedge species decreased with the altitude (Fig. 2).

L182-187: A total of 46 species were identified from the seedlings germinated in the greenhouse, belonging to 25 families and 36 genera. Among them, Cyperaceae species and Juncusiaceae species are dominant, mainly including Carex meyeriana, Carex schmidtii, Juncus effusus, Eleocharis dulcis and so on (Table. S2). Soil seed bank richness and density declined with the altitude (Fig. 3). Seed density of dominant sedge species decreased with the altitude (Fig. 3).”

 

Lines 160-162: These sentences don’t make sense and are just too complicated.

Response: We rewrote this sentence.

“Climate factors, aboveground vegetation, and soil properties directly influence seed density. Additionally, soil properties indirectly affect soil seed bank density by influencing aboveground vegetation (Fig. 5).”

 

The language in general lacks readiness – the sentences are very simple and not explanatory.  

Response: We revised the introduction, results and discussion as suggested to make them clear and logical. We improved the manuscript carefully.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors improved the MS a lot, yet still some issues must be addressed for MS to be published.
Just a suggestion, if the authors sees that using soil seed bank is redundant, the acronym SSB could be also used in this sense.
The authors did not took into account one of the suggestions: the paragraphs cannot end with the title of figure. More explanation must be added afterwards.

Line 75-76: You mean lower pH values?

Line 91: Carex should start with capital letter. And also, the first time using Carex as the whole genus name, afterwards when mentioning the species, the species name should contain not full genus name: e.g.  such as Carex meyeriana, .C. schmidtii, C. limosa and C. lasiocarpa.

Lines 116-118: When author state species, please refer that is a plant species, as. Because now, it seems as a logical leap from line 115.
Line 129: The title of paragraph 2.2.Soil Seed bank germination should be changed to 2.2.  Germination of Soil Seed Bank

133-134: germinated species. This usage of words is not right, as species as entities cannot germinate. It should be changed to emerged seedlings.

 

Author Response

9 September-2024

 

Dear Dr. Fannie.He, Dear editor,

 

We have carefully reviewed the comments of the editors and reviewers and revised it thoroughly. Attached please find our point to point replies to each of the reviewer/editor’s comments. We are confident this manuscript has been significantly improved and is ready for your further review. Please let me know if you have any question about this revision.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Guodong Wang

 

 

COMMENTS FROM EDITORS AND REVIEWERS

The authors improved the MS a lot, yet still some issues must be addressed for MS to be published.

 

Just a suggestion, if the authors sees that using soil seed bank is redundant, the acronym SSB could be also used in this sense

Response: We checked and revised the whole document as suggested.

 

The authors did not took into account one of the suggestions: the paragraphs cannot end with the title of figure. More explanation must be added afterwards.

Response: We deleted the title of figure at the end of paragraphs as suggested.

 

Line 75-76: You mean lower pH values?

Response: We deleted this sentence to make it more accurate.

 

Line 91: Carex should start with capital letter. And also, the first time using Carex as the whole genus name, afterwards when mentioning the species, the species name should contain not full genus name: e.g.  such as Carex meyeriana, .C. schmidtii, C. limosa and C. lasiocarpa.

Response: We checked and revised the whole document as suggested.

L82-83: “The tussock-forming carex species are dominant species in these peatlands [22], such as Carex meyeriana, C. schmidtii, C. limosa and C. lasiocarpa.”

L170-171: “Among them, Cyperaceae species are dominant, mainly including C. meyeriana, C. schmidtii, C. lasiocarpa and C. limosa (Table. S1).”

L176-177: “Among them, Cyperaceae species and Juncusiaceae species are dominant, mainly including C. meyeriana, C. schmidtii, Juncus effusus, Eleocharis dulcis and so on (Table. S2).”

 

 

Lines 116-118: When author state species, please refer that is a plant species, as. Because now, it seems as a logical leap from line 115.

Response: We corrected it to make it clearer.

L106-110: “Vegetation species richness refers to the number of different vegetation species that exist in a specific area. It reflects the degree of vegetation species diversity in the ecosystem [24]. Vegetation density refers to the number of individuals of a given vegetation species per unit area (or volume) at a given time. It reflects the distribution of the vegetation species in the ecosystem and the size of the population [39].”

 

Line 129: The title of paragraph 2.2. Soil Seed bank germination should be changed to 2.2.  Germination of Soil Seed Bank

Response: We changed it as suggested.

 

133-134: germinated species. This usage of words is not right, as species as entities cannot germinate. It should be changed to emerged seedlings.

Response: We changed it as suggested.

L123-124: “During the germination experiment, the emerged seedlings were recorded and cut from each pot every two weeks.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc