Savanna ecosystem structure and productivity along a rainfall gradient: the role of competition and stress tolerance mediated by plant functional traits

Paudel, Prashant; Olin, Stefan; Tjoelker, Mark; Pontarp, Mikael; Metcalfe, Daniel; Smith, Benjamin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-6153-2025

Articles | Volume 22, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-6153-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-6153-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 20

Research article

|

28 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 28 Oct 2025

Savanna ecosystem structure and productivity along a rainfall gradient: the role of competition and stress tolerance mediated by plant functional traits

Prashant Paudel, Stefan Olin, Mark Tjoelker, Mikael Pontarp, Daniel Metcalfe, and Benjamin Smith

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Final revised paper (published on 28 Oct 2025)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 17 Jan 2025)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3977', Anonymous Referee #1, 14 Mar 2025

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2024-3977/egusphere-2024-3977-RC1-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3977-RC1
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Benjamin Smith, 17 Jun 2025
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2024-3977/egusphere-2024-3977-AC2-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3977-AC2
RC2:
'Comment on egusphere-2024-3977', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Apr 2025

The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2024-3977/egusphere-2024-3977-RC2-supplement.pdf

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3977-RC2
- AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Benjamin Smith, 17 Jun 2025
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2024-3977/egusphere-2024-3977-AC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3977-AC1

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (20 Jun 2025) by David Medvigy

AR by Benjamin Smith on behalf of the Authors (25 Jul 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (25 Jul 2025) by David Medvigy

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (21 Aug 2025)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The revised MS has addressed my comments to an acceptable extent. Some of the simulated behaviour deviates substantially from observations, e.g. simulated vs observed PFT vs. FPC Fig. S5. However, I have no issue with this. This is new territory in DGVM development and the results are presented in a balanced way. As such, this submission presents important improvements in the representation of vegetation within DGVMs and represents an important starting point to allow further improvements to simulated vegetation dynamics in Australia. The presented results are an important benchmark which demonstrate current model functionality and can be used to assess the utility of further model improvements.

However, the presented progress and potential contribution of this study to future studies is diminished by the lack of data deposition in an open repository and lack of publicly available model code. Making the data and forcing data "available upon request" and lack of publicly available code is the major limitation of the study. This is easily remedied. The “available upon request” choice is not in keeping with current practices and journal policy. No detailed explanation of why data cannot be publicly shared is provided, as per journal guidelines. LPJ-GUESS versions are publicly available via the LPJ-GUESS community repository on Zenodo. The “collaboration agreement“ and “the acceptance of certain conditions” which are not specified no longer appears to be the case to access LPJ-GUESS code. I suggest the manuscript can be published but strongly suggest that the code used for the present study is added to the Zenodo LPJ-GUESS repository and that the data to reproduce, and which can be used to assess future potential improvements, are added to a public repository. Both DOIs should be added to the MS prior to publication to allow readers to easily find, attribute code and data, and reproduce the results of the present study.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (21 Aug 2025) by David Medvigy

AR by Prashant Paudel on behalf of the Authors (04 Sep 2025) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (05 Sep 2025) by David Medvigy

AR by Prashant Paudel on behalf of the Authors (09 Sep 2025) Author's response Manuscript

Post-review adjustments

AA: Author's adjustment | EA: Editor approval

AA by Benjamin Smith on behalf of the Authors (23 Oct 2025) Author's adjustment Manuscript

EA: Adjustments approved (23 Oct 2025) by David Medvigy

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Short summary

Ecological processes respond to changes in rainfall conditions. Competition and stress created by water availability are two primary components at two ends of the rainfall gradient. In wetter areas, plants compete for resources, while in drier regions, stress limits growth. The complex interaction between plant characters and their response to growth conditions governs ecosystem processes. These findings can be used to understand how future rainfall changes could impact ecosystems.