PONE-D-19-19121

Effects of turning frequency on the nutrients of Camellia oleifera shell co-compost with sheep manure and evaluation of co-compost maturity

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Jinping Zhang,

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Sartaj Ahmad Bhat, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The topic of the manuscript is actual. More details are necessary in the Introduction section of the manuscript. Some references need to be included. Some section needs to be rewritten.

Specific comments are listed below.

Abstract

Why it is so important to undertake these trials？What’s the purpose?

Why shell? Why manure? Why combined?

Line 12, “could enhance” compare with what?

Sample conclusion is missing.

Introduction

Lines 26-28, please rephrase these sentences.

Line 27, “slowly”, how long?

Lines 28-30, reference(s)?

Line 31, amount of the production? Add reference(s).

Lines 42-45, reference(s)? Why sheep manure?

Line 46, “improve”, how?

Line 47, “pests”, for examples. Pests, including viruses and pathogens? What’s the meaning?

Lines 53-56,”high” and “low” are generic terms. Please indicate a quantity.

Lines 59-70, this subsection needs to be rewritten. What’s the key point for this paragraph?

Lines 72-73, the purpose for testing these parameters.

Line 94, water content of the shell.

Line 95, 55% is water content or relative humidity?

Lines 113-115, depth of the pile.

Lines 124-125, more details.

Results and discussion

It’s important to add statistical analysis of the difference between different treatments.

Lines 133-135, please rephrase these sentences.

Line 140, (GB 7959-87), China?

Lines 175-176, 211, 241-242, r and P, in italics.

Conclusion

Please re-write the conclusion. Based on the purpose and the actual data.

Reviewer #2: This study conducted a 76-day composting experiment to explore the effects of turning frequency on the nutrients of Camellia oleifera shell co-compost with sheep manure and evaluation of co-compost maturity. The results showed that turning once every 7 days is the most suitable way to enhance the composting efficiency and compost product quality. In addition, this study proposed that TN, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N), and GI are useful indexes for comprehensively evaluate the compost maturity. In general, this work has some significance for practical production. However, further analysis and discussion about the relationships among these indexes are needed in this manuscript using a better statistical analysis method. Moreover, there some small problems needed to be revised. Thus, I think the present paper need a revision before publication. I hope my comments would be of help to the future improvement of the work.

1. Lines 284-294: Composting is a complex environmental process, many parameters will affect each other. Thus, I think Pearson correlation analysis is not sufficient to determine which factors are suitable for evaluating compost maturity. Multivariate analysis may be helpful to further understand the complex relationships among various parameters of composts. Redundancy analysis (RDA), structural equation models (SEMs) et al. may be a good choice, and the following references may helpful: Bioresource Technology 285 (2019) 121326; Environmental Pollution 250 (2019) 166-174.

2. The discussion section needs to be improved, and appropriate outlook should be supplemented.

3. Are “sheep manure” and “goat dung” the same in meaning? If they are same, please unify the words.

4. The method of moisture determination should be introduced in the “materials and methods” section.

5. Lines 145-146: why the temperature decreased to room temperature suddenly in all treatments?

6. The resolution of the pictures in the manuscript is poor.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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[EXSCINDED]

Effects of turning frequency on the nutrients of Camellia oleifera shell co-compost with goat dung and evaluation of co-compost maturity

PONE-D-19-19121R1

Dear Dr. Zhang,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

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With kind regards,

Sartaj Ahmad Bhat, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Authors addressed all my concerns. Following the revisions, I think the manuscript has improved a lot. It can be accepted for publication.

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No