Articles | Volume 25, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11633-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Moisture sources and dynamics over the Southeast Tibetan Plateau reflected in dual water vapor isotopes
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- Final revised paper (published on 30 Sep 2025)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 07 Jan 2025)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3801', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 Feb 2025
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Zhongyin Cai, 28 Mar 2025
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3801', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Feb 2025
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Zhongyin Cai, 28 Mar 2025
Peer review completion
AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Zhongyin Cai on behalf of the Authors (28 Mar 2025)
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ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Apr 2025) by Franziska Aemisegger
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (05 May 2025)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (26 May 2025)

RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (05 Jun 2025)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (16 Jun 2025) by Franziska Aemisegger

AR by Zhongyin Cai on behalf of the Authors (30 Jun 2025)
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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (18 Jul 2025) by Franziska Aemisegger

AR by Zhongyin Cai on behalf of the Authors (14 Aug 2025)
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ED: Publish as is (15 Aug 2025) by Franziska Aemisegger

AR by Zhongyin Cai on behalf of the Authors (15 Aug 2025)
Cai et al. investigate moisture sources and dynamics over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) using three-year near-surface water vapor isotopes (δ¹⁸O, d-excess) and back trajectory analysis. Their findings reveal that correlations between d-excess and oceanic evaporation conditions are driven by seasonal covariation rather than direct moisture sourcing. During the non-monsoon season, high d-excess reflects dry, cold air intrusions from the westerlies, while monsoon-season isotopes are shaped by raindrop evaporation during transport. The authors also challenge interpretations of TP ice core d-excess as proxies for oceanic humidity, emphasizing instead the role of local moisture recycling, air mass mixing, and rain-vapor interactions. These insights refine understanding of TP hydroclimate drivers and caution against oversimplified linkages between terrestrial isotopes and remote oceanic processes. This is an very interesting research. However, the authors need to address several issues, including both scientific and English language aspects, before being considered for publication.
There is room for improvement in the English language of this article. Some sections need significant rephrasing or reorganizing, particularly Introduction. Paragraphs in Introduction section appears lacking logical connection, and even its sentences are not logically related. In the first paragraph, the authors point out that the TP’s water balance has undergone significant changes, such as a drying trend in the southeastern TP and wetting in the northern TP. However, they didn’t provide our current understanding of the mechanisms of this water imbalance. Stable isotope approach is just one of the techniques that can be used to understand this. What are other methods and what are the advantages of examining vapor over other methods? What is the importance of understanding water imbalance in TP or the urgency of studying vapor dynamics? This will be the motivation of this study. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the authors introduce atmospheric water vapor and point out the important role of vapor dynamics in understanding water imbalance. Logically, the authors should start the second sentence with the research about water vapor. Instead, they talked about precipitation isotopes. I would suggest the authors to rewrite the Introduction with a focus on vapor and vapor isotopes.
Introduction is different from Abstract. There is no need to present your major findings in the Introduction. What you should present in this section is what you did with what approaches, and what are your objectives of this study.
Section 4.2 is also very difficult to follow, as the discussions in this section are not systematically presented. How Fig 7 supports the arguments is not clearly explained. The authors use composite analysis in the section. However, they did not include a brief introduction of this analysis in Data and Method section for the convenience of readers.
In lines 122-123, the sentence suggests that only one standard is used for the calibration of isotope results. The common practice is to use at least two in-house standards, which are normalized to VSMOW-SLAP scale. Please provide a brief description of how the calibration of water isotope results.
There are quite a few sentences that should be rephrased; they are either poorly presented or have grammatic errors. For details, please check the attached annotated file. This file includes more comments and suggestions.