Above and Belowground Relative Yield Total of Clover–Ryegrass Mixtures Exceed One in Wet and Dry Years
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I would first like to thank the authors for taking great care in addressing my previous concerns (which were quite demanding). I think the manuscript is significantly improved due to their hard work.
I have only a few minor comments.
A few times around line 213, you use the phrase "by xx%". It feels a little unnatural to me - saying something was "23% lower" or "35% higher" feels a bit more natural.
Also around this area you say
"Aboveground biomass of WC was twice as much as aboveground biomass of perennial ryegrass"
I would suggest
"The aboveground biomass of WC was double that of perennial ryegrass"
Around line 163 (section 2.5) - I wonder if the "t" on "Annual Temperature" shouldn't be lowercase?
On line 289 (first sentence of section 4.1) - I think it should be "were higher than" rather than "are higher than"
On line 324, "Lolium perenne" should be italicised
On line 350, there is an extra letter "t" (you deleted "he year")
I think otherwise, I should suggest the authors to have a good read through and look for odd grammar, but I think the message is much clearer (esp. in the Introduction). Great job.
Author Response
Thank you for your advises!
A few times around line 213, you use the phrase "by xx%". It feels a little unnatural to me - saying something was "23% lower" or "35% higher" feels a bit more natural.
Response: We agree that the term „by xx% lower“ is American English and we changed these expressions.
Also around this area you say
"Aboveground biomass of WC was twice as much as aboveground biomass of perennial ryegrass"
I would suggest
"The aboveground biomass of WC was double that of perennial ryegrass"
Response: Done as requested.
Around line 163 (section 2.5) - I wonder if the "t" on "Annual Temperature" shouldn't be lowercase?
Response: The uppercase of „Average Temperature“ was changed into lowercase: „Average temperature“.
On line 289 (first sentence of section 4.1) - I think it should be "were higher than" rather than "are higher than"
Response: „are higher than“ was transferred into „were higher than“.
On line 324, "Lolium perenne" should be italicised
Response: Scientific names of plants (Trifolium repens, Trifolium pratense and Lolium perenne) have been italicised.
On line 350, there is an extra letter "t" (you deleted "he year")
Response: The extra letter „t“ has been deleted also. Thus we deleted „the year“.
I think otherwise, I should suggest the authors to have a good read through and look for odd grammar, but I think the message is much clearer (esp. in the Introduction). Great job.
We checked the manuscript for odd grammar and expressions.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear authors,
This is an interesting and well written manuscript. I really enjoyed reading this research. However, I do have some concerns as reported below:
Line 80-88: “Species-specific root biomass in the mixtures was…monocultures (RYT>1)”. This paragraph should be placed at the Material and Methods section.
Line 349-350: “Thus, our second hypothesis that assumes differences in vertical root distribution between 350 monocultures and mixtures was confirmed for the year 2015 and 2018, but not for 2016”. Why this did not happen in 2016? Please, explain it.
Line 431: “Aboveground and belowground biomass displayed a strong decrease from 2015 to 2018”. Better underline that under these experimental conditions aboveground and belowground biomass displayed a strong decrease from 2015 to 2018. It’s not sure that under different climatic and soil conditions the results will be the same.
Author Response
Thank you for your comments!
Line 80-88: “Species-specific root biomass in the mixtures was…monocultures (RYT>1)”. This paragraph should be placed at the Material and Methods section.
Thank you for your advise, but this section includes the hypotheses and we think, that they should stay in the introdution section.
Line 349-350: “Thus, our second hypothesis that assumes differences in vertical root distribution between (350) monocultures and mixtures was confirmed for the year 2015 and 2018, but not for 2016”. Why this did not happen in 2016? Please, explain it.
we added a possible explanation.
Line 431: “Aboveground and belowground biomass displayed a strong decrease from 2015 to 2018”. Better underline that under these experimental conditions aboveground and belowground biomass displayed a strong decrease from 2015 to 2018. It’s not sure that under different climatic and soil conditions the results will be the same.
Done as requested. Under these experimental conditions aboveground and belowground biomass displayed a strong decrease from 2015 to 2018.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
