Assessing the Within-Field Heterogeneity Using Rapid-Eye NDVI Time Series Data
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Intensive English editing is needed. incorporate all the corrections suggested on MS.
conclusion is too descriptive must be shorten
References not as per the journal format
1. What is the main question addressed by the research? Ans: Optimize crop management with respect to yield and ecosystem services using high resolution satellite NDVI2. Do you consider the topic original or relevant in the field? Does it address a specific gap in the field? Ans:Up to some extent high resolution satellite NDVI in real time series address the management issue in heterogeneous field
3. What does it add to the subject area compared with other published material? Ans:Confirmation of results
4. What specific improvements should the authors consider regarding the methodology? What further controls should be considered? Ans: Methodology is too much elaborative and complex, and hence lack of clarity
5. Are the conclusions consistent with the evidence and arguments presented and do they address the main question posed? Ans: Yes conclusion draw in line of results but unnecessary too much descriptive there are fare chance to concise.
6. Are the references appropriate? Ans: Numbers are appropriate but presentation style is not followed as per journal format
7. Please include any additional comments on the tables and figures. Ans: Adequate
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your constructive comments! Attached you will find our responses.
With kind regards
Jasper Mohr
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
OBSERVATIONS TO MANUSCRIPT: ASSESSING THE SMALL-SCALE HETEROGENEITY OF AGRICULTURAL FIELDS USING RAPID-EYE NDVI TIME SERIES
The document is interesting, since it establishes a methodological and analysis scheme, where remote sensing technology was used to obtain NDVI. The authors concluded that High resolution satellite NDVI time series are a valuable information source for precise land management in order to optimize crop management with respect to yield and ecosystem services. However, the document can be improved if some modifications are made.
Please, you should review the concept of small scale; since, small scale refers to the representation of a large area on a map, for example: a 1:100,000 scale, which means that 1 cm of map represents 100,000 cm in the field. On the other hand, a large scale is the representation of a smaller area on a map, for example: a 1:100 scale means that 1 cm of map represents 100 cm in the field, so in this case, the map has more detail.
Therefore, it is suggested to modify the title as shown below:
Assessing Large-Scale Heterogeneity of Agricultural Fields Using Rapid-eyes NDVI Time Series
The authors in the introduction raised the problem, justified the work, and gave background, assumption and objectives.
In materials and methods, how did you solve the problem of the variation of the type of crop through the years? You should consider that each crop has different physiological stages, which in turn vary according to the environmental and edaphic conditions of a given site; in such a way that the chlorophyll contents can vary, resulting in different shades of green over time, which are translated into the NDVI obtained from satellite images. You normalize the NDVI and do different goodness-of-fit tests, in order to compare the behavior of the NDVI of the plot through space and time with the soil and the altitude, but this would not reflect the behavior of the crops that were in the place.
Results
Line 172. How much was the CWB in those months and in February/March?
Line 182. Write m2 with superscript (m2).
Line 204. How much and with respect to what?
Discussion
The discussion could be enriched; you can discuss your results citing research or work with similar results or you can explain the reasons why you obtained the results. This allows you to support the assumptions that you are raising.
Line 249. Why do they indicate that the combination of S3 and A1 is determined by the physiological measurements of the plant, when the results do not show the values of the measurements to support the affirmation? Lack of discussion.
Line 254-255. There are no citations to support your assumptions.
Line 263-273. They could show or cite research where similar behaviors have occurred or explain why this phenomenon can occur. Lack of discussion.
Conclusions
You could redraft the conclusions. If reviewed in line 275-277 it says: To sum up the findings, the study showed a strong dependence between the spatial variability of soil characteristics (i.e. soil type) and the spatial variability of winter cereal crop growth. However, you only relied on loamy-textured layer depth to obtain a thematic map of loamy-layer depth classes and did not use any other characteristics (physical or chemical) of the soil in your study. Please be specific with the textural class you used.
Please review the small scale concept of line 277.
Please review all the conclusions based on the modifications you make to the writing.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your constructive comments! Attached you will find our responses.
With kind regards
Jasper Mohr
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This study aims at providing an example and a work flow for using high resolution satellite time series (Rapid Eye, Planet Scope) to assess spatially consistent vegetation patterns and their relation to soil characteristics at the field scale. This article clearly describes the research gap and the research methods employed, proposes two research hypothesizes, and answers them through the research findings. Additionally, the article is well-written, with a clear structure, fluent language, sufficient reference citations, and a concise conclusion. Therefore, I suggest some minor revisions are suggested below to further enhance the quality of this manuscript.
1. Please provide more information that why you classified the altitude into three classes.
2. What does “2014/15” in Table represent? Please clarify.
3. The Equation (1) should be tagged with NDVI as the computation target.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your constructive comments! Attached you will find our responses.
With kind regards
Jasper Mohr
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
