Moderate topsoil erosion rates constrain the magnitude of the
erosion-induced carbon sink and agricultural productivity  losses on the
Chinese Loess Plateau

Zhao, Jianlin; Van Oost, Kristof; Chen, Longqian; Govers, Gerard

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4735-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4735-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4735-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

Research article

|

23 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 23 Aug 2016

Moderate topsoil erosion rates constrain the magnitude of the erosion-induced carbon sink and agricultural productivity losses on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Jianlin Zhao, Kristof Van Oost, Longqian Chen, and Gerard Govers

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Final revised paper (published on 23 Aug 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 10 Sep 2015)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C5626: 'ms review', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 Sep 2015
SC C10499: 'Interactive comment on bg-2015-362 by J. Zhao et al', Qihou Hu, 18 Apr 2016
AC C10593: 'reply to two referees's comments', Jianlin Zhao, 20 May 2016
RC C10594: 'Review of Zhao et al. Moderate topsoil erosion rates constrain the magnitude of the erosion-induced carbon sink and agricultural productivity losses on the Chinese Loess Plateau', Anonymous Referee #2, 13 Jun 2016
- AC C10606: 'reply to the second referee's comments', Jianlin Zhao, 24 Jun 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (29 Jun 2016) by Michael Bahn

AR by Jianlin Zhao on behalf of the Authors (07 Jul 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (25 Jul 2016) by Michael Bahn

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (03 Aug 2016)

ED: Publish as is (03 Aug 2016) by Michael Bahn

AR by Jianlin Zhao on behalf of the Authors (10 Aug 2016)

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Short summary

We used a novel approach to reassess erosion rates on the CLP. We found that both current average topsoil erosion rates and the maximum magnitude of the erosion-induced carbon sink are overestimated on the CLP. Although average topsoil losses on the CLP are still high, a major increase in agricultural productivity occurred since 1980. Hence, erosion is currently not a direct threat to agricultural productivity on the CLP but the long-term effects of erosion on soil quality remain important.