The comment was fully considered: the PCA and partial correlation analysis was adopted form the recommended study (e.g., Cheng et al., 2019). Correspondingly, separate subheadings (with new Table 4 and Figure 4) were added. Generally it was considered in Introduction and Materials & Methods, Results and Discussion sections. Such approach helped to analyze the underlying mechanisms.
In addition, partial correlation analysis (e.g., Cheng et al., 2019) could be helpful and bring more insights given the fact that soil spectra are simultaneously influenced by several soil properties (e.g., SOM and Iron oxide).