Discussion on characterization of thermal conductivity of seasonally frozen turfy soil from Northeastern China by He et al. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 81, 481

We thank the authors of the discussion paper for their recognition and rigorous discussions of our work. In response to the enquiry, we compared the definition and the properties of peat soil and the turfy soil in our work. The comparison shows that the properties of turfy soil in our work are close to those of the common peat soil, and that turfy soil conforms to the wide definition of peat. We explained why we used the term “turfy soil” and that a large number of studies in relevant or other fields have used the term turfy soil, even in recent publications.