This manuscript has been examined by two expert reviewers. The authors have also responded to the review comments through Interactive discussion. In general, the review result and feedback are relatively good. Taking into account the limited data and meaningful phenomenon of this article, I completely agree with the suggestions of the two reviewers suggesting that the article should be changed into a technical note, a kind of short communication in this journal. Indeed, the authors do not have strong data to prove the prior hypothesis. The most critical issue is whether drought and ethylene biosynthesis inhibitor actually influence the production of ethylene. It is suggested that the authors be able to make more specific discussion to clarify whether stressed plants can release enough ethylene into field soil, which inhibits the microbial oxidation of methane.

I am pleased to inform you that your paper "Manipulating interactions between plant stress responses and soil methane oxidation rates" can be accepted for publication in BIOGEOSCIENCES.