PONE-D-21-05618

Regulation of Jacobaea vulgaris by varied cutting and restoration measures

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Möhler,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. In general, the manuscript needs an in-depth review with special attention to methodology.  Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Jose L. Gonzalez-Andujar

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments:

Describe in M&M the elastictiy analysis performed

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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: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

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: Yes

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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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 authors have compared six different management regimes for reducing the abundance of Jacobaea vulgaris. These regimes included combinations of seeding, soil disturbance, and mowing to facilitate natural communities while suppressing the weed. They found that seeding increased resident community metrics, and cutting before bloom (twice) reduced the weed’s population growth rate. However, no treatment significantly reduced abundance of J. vulgaris relative to controls, though flowering emerges as a stable/detectable management target. The experiment replicates a range of treatment possibilities across several sites, and follows them for multiple years. Thus, they were able to detect certain trends that may prove useful. I appreciate the attention to weed vital rates as well as abundance in the evaluation of different treatments, and the examination of community transitions as a response variable. Vital rate estimates data are important to quantifying weed invasions, but are often not considered. Overall, I liked the study and the approach provides comparisons to tease apart advantages of different methods that apply similar pressure on the weed, and think it will be informative and of interest to a broad audience. Portions of the methods require some clarification; it’s not completely clear to me at times what is being compared and whether treatments are compared within or across sites. However, I don't fear I would have issues with the general structure of the analysis. There’s also a few comments that need more context. With a thoughtful revision of the manuscript, I think it would be a solid contribution to the literature. Hopefully the questions and comments below will be useful in this.

Questions:

Would you define “milling”? I’m not familiar with this practice in the context of soil disturbance.

Though you detected trends, the treatments didn’t significantly affect J. vulgaris. I was wondering about site factors that may have interacted with management to dilute impacts. You control for “site” as a random factor in population growth (L195-196), but it’s not clear that an interaction between site and treatment has been considered.

-Do you think site differences in pressures affecting recruitment and transitions among life stages may lead to different advantages of treatments among sites? (for instance, see Rand et al. 2020 Oecologia 193:143-153) Some of the concepts you reference around precipitation in the discussion (e.g., L410-412) would also be applicable to this question.

-Because it’s wind dispersed, do you think proximity of blocks might muddy treatment effects on seedling recruitment? That is, were they sufficiently separated to minimize the invasion/seed dispersal from adjacent plots?

L41: Should this be overall plant diversity? As it includes some introduced seed, some ruderal weeds, etc.

L133- each treatment was implemented over a 90 m2 area, so each site consisted of seven 90 m2 blocks?

L148: How did you choose additional seed to mix?

L152: Seems out of place. Should this go up to 149-150?

L179: I’m not sure where the pooling is occurring. I assume you mean that each site had a population growth rate in each treatment and year, and you’re pooling your three plots within each block to each treatment?

189 (analysis): may be helpful to organize around the two questions in the intro. I’m not sure exactly what is being tested at times (among years, treatments, at what level replication occurs). For instance, is site treated as a random factor in comparing the number of plants among treatments? (L201-205)

Confusion regarding ANOVAS and what’s tested (e.g., L234-5)

L249 (population results): why not do mixed models with population growth? (site effects/interactions)

L254-257: high then low growth rates: do you think this emerges from seedling flushes or from more flowering adults? Just curious.

L260-263: Not sure where this rainfall data and linear analysis comes from? Please add to supplement, or provide a reference.

L421: Do you think that even if rosette-rosette is not be critical to growth, it might maintain a potential pool through time that allows populations to persist even when not growing (L272-274)? Certainly the above suggests there’s a holdover in flowering and expansion in droughty conditions.

L353: Does milling eliminate standing cover?

L430: Soil disturbance doesn’t seem as beneficial to site quality improvement, sowing and mowing (more frequently) does

L464: Why soil fertility? Can you add a couple of sentences here to provide context for this assertion?

Figures and Tables:

Table 1: may be helpful to categorize treatments to highlight comparisons, e.g., columns: disturbance|frequency of disturbance|seeding|frequency of seeding| seed mix. Especially as hand sowing seemed to make a difference, but not drilling (L470)

L174: should this table have a legend? And should retrogression be included? L177 leaves out reference to “R”, which is included in both the figure and table. (Figure 2: Is “R” retrogression?)

Figure 6: Bar colors for each category? (L277: bars are treatment and controls?)

Check that figure categories are ordered consistently - Figures 3 and 8 are ordered differently.

A few minor typos questions:

L38 “Its control…”

L114: “vegetative” bud?

L126-7: “…very high with an (?) average….at the experiment’s start”

L324: sowing in pulses? Or sowing pulses?

L338: no comma after milling

L385: orphaned “r” after “…causing…”

L399: …compensated for this mortality

Reviewer #2: The work is interesting but presents problems as can be seen in the attached text.

Negative points: First, the work found no differences for the treatments tested, but built a conclusion as if it had found big differences. Therefore, reformulate the writing of the text based on the data found and do not make conclusions that the data do not support.

Figures need better presentation, especially figures 5 and 6.

Very long conclusion and nothing objective (it is not the time for discussion). It needs more objectivity.

Restructure the text according to the data found.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-21-05618_reviewer 03 29 21 -3.pdf

PONE-D-21-05618R1Regulation of Jacobaea vulgaris by varied cutting and restoration measuresPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wiggering,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 11 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Jose L. Gonzalez-Andujar

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

The manuscript is acceptable for publication but it is necessary to make some minor modification for clarity and context as pointed out by reviewer #2.

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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: (No Response)

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: No

**********

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: The manuscript is improved and has addressed many of the reviewer comments. However, the authors still have a few issues with consistency (e.g., fecundity versus fertility [L169-170 & L179-180, L395], L201 should be second question, not third) and adequately describing methods for reported results (e.g., "elasticity" appears in the results (L277) but it is the first time this term is used, L202: how was evenness quantified (Pielou's index? Simpson's?, etc.). Though these examples are common metrics in ecological studies, they are important to define and contextualize. Overall, I think with some minor revisions for clarity and context, it could be acceptable for publication.

Reviewer #2: Dears,

In my opinion, the last detail to be corrected in the work is English, send it for review.

Regards.

**********

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.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-21-05618R2Regulation of Jacobaea vulgaris by varied cutting and restoration measuresPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wiggering,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please make the few minor changes suggested by reviewer 1.

Please submit your revised manuscript by May 07 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Remigio Paradelo Núñez

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Dear authors,

Please make the few minor changes suggested by reviewer 1.

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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: (No Response)

**********

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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: 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: (No Response)

**********

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

**********

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: The authors have adequately addressed issues raised, and I recommend acceptance. I've noted some minor technical tweaks that need resolution below (and one just aside comment that is purely due to interest, not issue). Thank you for the opportunity to read your work.

L142: how many weeks? an approximate or minimum number would suffice if the exact is unknown. But this would be necessary to recreate the experiment.

L192: you use the symbol for 'lambda' throughout the text, so please include it in the parenthetical aside

L312: please cite the index for red listed species

L348-9: interesting: how long might seeds lie dormant? Perhaps a combination of seedbank and wind-dispersal

L418: Eisele reference needs a year.

**********

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.

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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

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Regulation of Jacobaea vulgaris by varied cutting and restoration measures

PONE-D-21-05618R3

Dear Dr. Wiggering,

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

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Remigio Paradelo Núñez

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: