Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures

Marco Pittarello; Simone Ravetto Enri; Michele Lonati; Giampiero Lombardi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0259120

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJune 14, 2021
28 Jul 2021 Decision Letter - Emmanuel Serrano, Editor PONE-D-21-19475 Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Pittarello, 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. As you will see, our reviewer has only pointed some minor metodological details that should be clarified in a revised version. Please submit your revised manuscript by Sep 11 2021 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. 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The methodology is adequate. The interpretations are well justified and consistent with the objectives. Listed below are several minor aspects that can clarify the article. With attention to these points the paper should be acceptable. Specific points: - Remove double parentheses in lines 54, 82, 90, 110, 111 and 146. - Line 66. There are some other works that used low-cost GPS collars (e.g. Hanpson et al 2010. Monitoring distances travelled by horses using GPS tracking collars. Australian Veterinary Journal). - Lines 74-77. Authors must provide a bibliographic citation that accredits this sentence. - Lines 103-104. Authors should detail the types of buildings considered. - Lines 120-121. This sentence requires a citation too. - Line 182. Clarify if the distance considered was in a straight line or following the available paths. - Line 187. Clarify if for the calculation of the stocking rate only the animal that carried the GPS or the entire herd was considered. ****** 6. 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Revision 1
3 Sep 2021 Author Response PONE-D-21-19475 Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures PLOS ONE Journal requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf ANSWER: We modified the manuscript style accordingly 2. In your Methods section, please provide additional information regarding the permits you obtained for the work. Please ensure you have included the full name of the authority that approved the field site access and, if no permits were required, a brief statement explaining why. ANSWER: We specified in Methods section that all the permissions and permits required for fieldwork and utilization of cattle were requested and authorized by the administration of Val Troncea Natural Park. 3. In your Methods section, please provide additional details regarding participant consent from the owners of the animals. In the ethics statement in the Methods and online submission information, please ensure that you have specified (1) whether consent was informed and (2) what type you obtained (for instance, written or verbal). If the need for consent was waived by the ethics committee, please include this information. ANSWER: We specified in Methods section that in agreement with the farmer 14 cows were randomly selected for being tracked with GPS collars. 4. We note that you have stated that you will provide repository information for your data at acceptance. Should your manuscript be accepted for publication, we will hold it until you provide the relevant accession numbers or DOIs necessary to access your data. If you wish to make changes to your Data Availability statement, please describe these changes in your cover letter and we will update your Data Availability statement to reflect the information you provide ANSWER: We specified in the submission form, at the “Additional information” section, at the point “Describe where the data may be found in full sentences. If you are copying our sample text, replace any instances of XXX with the appropriate details.” that the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. 5. We note that Figure 1 in your submission contain map images which may be copyrighted. 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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. ANSWER: We do not have any retracted article 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 ________________________________________ 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: I Don't Know ________________________________________ 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 ________________________________________ 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 ________________________________________ 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: General assessment: The paper provides interesting information in the field of grazing pressure in alpine pastures. The subject falls within the general scope of the PLOSONE journal. The originality of the work’s contribution lies in demonstrating that slope and distance to buildings along with the types of vegetation and the use of GPS collars contribute to explain the use of grasslands. The methodology is adequate. The interpretations are well justified and consistent with the objectives. Listed below are several minor aspects that can clarify the article. With attention to these points the paper should be acceptable. Specific points: - Remove double parentheses in lines 54, 82, 90, 110, 111 and 146. ANSWER: We modified the text accordingly - Line 66. There are some other works that used low-cost GPS collars (e.g. Hanpson et al 2010. Monitoring distances travelled by horses using GPS tracking collars. Australian Veterinary Journal). ANSWER: Thank you! We added the reference you suggested and also others related to the use of low-cost GPS collars (26 – 29). These research have been carried out in USA and Australian rangelands. Therefore, we modified the text accordingly: “Moreover, up to date, low-cost GPS have been tested only in USA [25-28] and Australian rangelands [29]) and information about their performance is still unavailable in rough environments such as alpine pastures.” 26. Brennan, J., Johnson, P., & Olson, K. Classifying season long livestock grazing behavior with the use of a low-cost GPS and accelerometer. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2021. 181, 105957. 27. Karl, J. W., & Sprinkle, J. E. Low-cost livestock global positioning system collar from commercial off-the-shelf parts. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 2019. 72(6), 954-958. 28. McGranahan, D. A., Geaumont, B., & Spiess, J. W. Assessment of a livestock GPS collar based on an open‐source datalogger informs best practices for logging intensity. Ecology and evolution, 2018. 8(11), 5649-5660. 29. Hampson, B. A., Morton, J. M., Mills, P. C., Trotter, M. G., Lamb, D. W., & Pollitt, C. C. Monitoring distances travelled by horses using GPS tracking collars. Australian Veterinary Journal, 2010. 88(5), 176-181. - Lines 74-77. Authors must provide a bibliographic citation that accredits this sentence. ANSWER: Two citations (29 and 30) are provided in the next sentence, in which we highlight that many authors found a strong relationship between the site use intensity gradient and the transition of specific vegetation communities. 29. Peter M, Edwards PJ, Jeanneret P, Kampmann D, Lüscher A. Changes over three decades in the floristic composition of fertile permanent grasslands in the Swiss Alps. Agric Ecosyst Environ 2008; 125(1–4):204–12. 30. Tasser E, Tappeiner U. Impact of land use changes on mountain vegetation. Appl Veg Sci. 2002;5(2):173–84. - Lines 103-104. Authors should detail the types of buildings considered. ANSWER: In the introduction, we specified as examples the farm centers and cowshed, whereas in the Material and Methods (i.e. ‘Computation of site-use intensity proxies’ section) we also indicated ‘other buildings related to pastoral activities’ which are buildings useful as a foothold for pastoral equipment (e.g. mobile electric fences, posts, energizers). - Lines 120-121. This sentence requires a citation too. ANSWER: We did not add a citation as in the previous paragraph (from L73 to L86) we discussed, with several references, about the relations between livestock site-use intensity and botanical composition. - Line 182. Clarify if the distance considered was in a straight line or following the available paths. ANSWER: We added a sentence to better explain the concept that: “Proximity was based on a straight-line distance between vegetation surveys and buildings.” - Line 187. Clarify if for the calculation of the stocking rate only the animal that carried the GPS or the entire herd was considered. ANSWER: Thank you for your comment. Actually, in this analysis we did not aim at calculating the stocking rate, but rather at assessing if slope and distance from buildings were good predictors of site-use intensity, measured by the number of GPS locations. As the term ‘stocking rate’ may be misleading in this context, we removed it from the sentence. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259120.r002
13 Oct 2021 Decision Letter - Emmanuel Serrano, Editor Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures PONE-D-21-19475R1 Dear Dr. Pittarello, 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. An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Emmanuel Serrano, PhD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Congratulations! 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 ******** 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: I Don't Know ****** 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 ****** 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: (No Response) ****** 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: Yes:** Jordi Bartolomé Filella https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259120.r003
Formally Accepted
25 Oct 2021 Acceptance Letter - Emmanuel Serrano, Editor PONE-D-21-19475R1 Slope and distance from buildings are easy-to-retrieve proxies for estimating livestock site-use intensity in alpine summer pastures Dear Dr. Pittarello: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Emmanuel Serrano Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259120.r004

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