Algal richness in BSCs in forests under different management intensity with some implications for P cycling

Glaser, Karin; Baumann, Karen; Leinweber, Peter; Mikhailyuk, Tatiana; Karsten, Ulf

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4181-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4181-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Biological soil crusts and their role in biogeochemical processes...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4181-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 13

Research article

|

11 Jul 2018

Research article |

| 11 Jul 2018

Algal richness in BSCs in forests under different management intensity with some implications for P cycling

Karin Glaser, Karen Baumann, Peter Leinweber, Tatiana Mikhailyuk, and Ulf Karsten

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Jul 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 27 Sep 2017)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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RC1: 'Algal diversity of temperate biological soil crusts depends on land use intensity and affects phosphorus biogeochemical cycling', Anonymous Referee #1, 04 Dec 2017
- AC1: 'Reply: comment anonymous referee #1', Karin Glaser, 10 Jan 2018
RC2: 'Comment', Anonymous Referee #2, 14 Dec 2017
- AC2: 'Reply: comment anonymous referee #2', Karin Glaser, 10 Jan 2018

Peer-review completion

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

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (10 Jan 2018) by Bettina Weber

AR by Karin Glaser on behalf of the Authors (14 Feb 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (15 Feb 2018) by Bettina Weber

AR by Karin Glaser on behalf of the Authors (20 Mar 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (03 Apr 2018) by Bettina Weber

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (19 Apr 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The revision of the manuscript improved most of the topics issued in the first discussion round. Nevertheless, there is still potential for further improvement that can be solved in a minor revision of the manuscript.
The new section in the introduction describes very clearly that BSC can occur in the forest context but only in open sites, where the continuous forest is disturbed. As a consequence, interpretations on larger scales (forest as an ecosystem, meso- or macro- scale) should be taken with great care. It should be stated throughout the manuscript that this study focuses on disturbed sites with minimal areal extension in forests (a fact that also becomes very clear from the chosen pictures in Figure 1)!
There are several occasions throughout the text where this still needs clarification (examples):
Maybe, even the title should be revised according to that new way of showing and interpreting the data.
P3 line 14: collected from disturbed/open sites within temperate forests
P10 line 9: For the first time, algal richness in BSCs from such disturbed sites in temperate forests with different management intensities were described.
P2 line 25: It could be stated here, that in contrast to the studies in arid ecosystems, here, not the disturbance of the crusts was studied, but rather how the disturbance of the continuous forest effects the crust development (crust formation via changes in species richness).
P8 line 28: This perfectly suits your idea, of BSC occurring in disturbed sites with advantages compared to the higher vegetation. Maybe you can elaborate a bit more on this here.

Other comments:
P1 line 15: Delete: but and replace with: anyhow,
P1 line 23: delete one of the two ..
P2 line 18: The citations of Li et al. 2005 and Su et al. 2009 do not make sense in this context because they both refer to desert plants and are therefore not representative in the forest context.
P3 line 4: see also Szyja et al. 2018, published in this same special issue.
P3 line 18: delete one of the two ..
P3 line 17: Insert a space between soils and (
P4ls 25: My original question here was: how were the frequency data gained? How were the ‘proportion’ data generated?
Could you please explain?
P4 ls 23: Please revise to: As a second parameter for biodiversity the similarity between single plots was shown by presence/absence data of individual species, combining the total number and the identity of all algal taxa observed.
P5 line 4: It is not clear what the authors mean with “interactions between BSC biodiversity indicators and environmental parameters”. Could this be: a linkage between BSC development and environmental parameters?
P6 line 10-23: Please include some information about the implications of these correlations.
P 10 ls. 8: are able to coexist WITH forest, rather than IN

Table 2: According to a previous comment please specify the terminology: biodiversity of algae.
Figure 1: Please explain the picture in the right lower corner. Is this also taken from a root plate? Please include a scale and the picture labelling, as also commented by the editor.
I also strongly agree with the editor, that the manuscript needs language polishing. Mainly the lack of commas in the text makes some sentences very difficult to understand.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (20 Apr 2018)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (25 Apr 2018) by Bettina Weber

AR by Karin Glaser on behalf of the Authors (09 May 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (20 May 2018) by Bettina Weber

AR by Karin Glaser on behalf of the Authors (03 Jun 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (07 Jun 2018) by Bettina Weber

AR by Karin Glaser on behalf of the Authors (20 Jun 2018)

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