Peer Review History
| Original SubmissionJune 14, 2021 |
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PONE-D-21-19522 Great egret (Ardea alba) habitat selection and foraging behavior in a temperate estuary: comparing natural wetlands to areas with shellfish aquaculture PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Jennings, 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 Sep 04 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. 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:
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Please do not edit.] 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: Yes ********** 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: Line 22 insert comma after marsh Line 79 need space between [16] and comma Line 116 labeled with Line 117 eelgrass shown in dark gray and , shellfish…. Line 137 Does Publicly have to be capitalized. Hyphen is not necessary Line 138 end sentence after ...our analysis. Line 139 Capital W to start line Line 151 remove a after in GIS…. Line 182 I did not find that DEM was defined prior to this sentence, will your reader know what this is? Line 185 end sentence after collected Line 186 start line with capital T Line 198 add space between ) and [5] Line 206 delete dur to Line 228 “third order selection” needs to be better defined if the concept of Johnson’s hierarchical habitat selection is used. This term has not been described either in the introduction or methods prior to this point. L.232-233 “evaluate fine scale habitat selection but avoid an excessive number of steps with no movement” – this data thinning may result in bias: “stay-put” during foraging may suggest selection, and more residence time. You may need movement steps for non-zero step selection functions; however, the more the locations you filtered out, the more the information of preference (staying there longer) you may lose. Caution needs to be exercised here. Line 234 add space between ) and [33] Line 245 What were an example of the observations of foraging behavior that prompted you to select this scale, an explanation would help the reader. Line 248 what is a small number, state how many models, be specific L. 252-253 The time-interval that you “chose” may affect the model outcomes because birds may choose to stay longer with shorter step length if wetland types are desirable; however, a part of this information has been thrown out by filtering the data. A sensitivity analysis as the authors mentioned (L. 246-247) is critical. Line 252-254 you chose to evaluate wetland type at the start or end of the step. Use this same order in the next sentence Line 256 than for natural wetlands Line 257 “interactions between the 4-level wetland type variable and time-specific water depth”: have you checked whether the wetland types and water depth are correlated before they are included in the same model? Line 261 … we deemed a quadratic response to be the most biologically likely… based on what? How did you determine this approach was the most biologically likely? Line 261-262 The authors decided to use quadratic functions as described in the methods section without further justification using the literature or some preliminary analysis. The relationship with other three wetland types appeared to be linear based on Fig. 2. Line 264 add space between ) and [37] Line 301 Table 1 do you have an explanation as to the egrets that quit (?) sending data in 2018 and 2019? Did they leave the area due to migration? If so, did they revisit the area? Did you have any transmitter failure? Did you have mortality? Lines 320-332 To better support and clarify the statements, a box plot of tidal water depth for four wetland types (maybe as a supplementary figure) would be useful. Line 331-332 … natural wetlands than for shellfish aquaculture areas across most water depths… define most, number, percentage? Hard to determine how important this is. Line 372 delete they Line 393 aquaculture areas were well within … Lines 398-399 “…showed a strong quadratic response across the range of water depths we investigated,…” Does this suggest your model only fit data on shellfish aquaculture well, failing on the other three wetland types? Line 459 insert comma after marsh Overview: This is an important study because there has been little attention to the relationships between shellfish aquaculture and wading-bird habitat selection during the past. An interesting part of this study is the quantification of foraging activities with movement speed and activity level (with accelerometer data). Their results of the analyses look fine from their reports of AICc values and Figures. However, the quadratic curve is only obvious with shellfish aquaculture in Figure 2. As the tidal water depth increased between 0 and 1, relative selection strength converged among the four types of wetlands (Fig. 2). The authors decided to use quadratic functions as described in the method section without further justification using the literature or some preliminary analysis (L.261-262). The relationship with other three wetland types appeared to be linear based on Fig. 2. To better support and clarify the statements between lines 320-332, a box plot of tidal water depth for the four wetland types (maybe as a supplementary figure) would be useful. The actual description of their statistical analysis is good, but my main concerns are twofold. 1) sample size of seven birds is too small for a reliable inference even when analysis is by individual bird; and 2) data filtering may have affected the results and conclusions. ********** 6. 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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| Revision 1 |
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Great egret (Ardea alba) habitat selection and foraging behavior in a temperate estuary: comparing natural wetlands to areas with shellfish aquaculture PONE-D-21-19522R1 Dear Dr. JENNINGS, 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. 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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 #2: (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 #2: Yes ********** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? 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 #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 #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 #2: Main comments: 1. The reason why the shellfish aquaculture was only selected at a narrow range of water depths probably because it is not the prime foraging habitat for great egrets. During low tide period, great egrets have mass natural habitats to forage; therefore, the relative selection strength for shellfish aquaculture decreased rapidly. In addition, after shellfish aquaculture infrastructures are exposed above water level, it would be difficult for great egrets to forage around. However, when tide comes up, the shellfish aquaculture is the last area to be inundated and thus becomes a potential foraging site for great egrets. During high tide, shellfish aquaculture was used more frequently probably because of its location, with higher elevation. If the proposition is right, the most important factor affecting the foraging of the great egrets would be the availability of natural wetlands. They would always prefer natural habitats unless high tide pushes them away. 2. Since the GPS-datalogger cannot provide information on foraging success, it is no way to tell a great egret is foraging or resting in a particular habitat. Especially, “sit and wait” is one of the foraging tactics they apply frequently. As a result, movement speed might not directly reflect foraging success. 3. Is it OK to turn the graph around along the X axis in Figure 2? Making negative values for data below water level would be easily to understand. 4. Based on Fig. 3 and 4, it appears that great egrets used more short movements and spent less energy (ODBA) in tidal marsh than in other habitat types. I do not know if it implies that great egrets forage more frequently in tidal marsh. 5. In Figure 4, it is better to designate the difference among wetland types. For example, mark different letters (a, b, or c) to show significant difference based on the Tukey’s test or non-parametric analysis. 6. In discussion, some results could be explained more explicitly. For example, how tidal movement affects the foraging behavior of great egrets and why shellfish aquaculture was selected at a narrow range of water depth? In addition, the disturbance of human activity in shellfish aquaculture was not discussed at all. It could be an important factor preventing great egrets to use shellfish aquaculture. Others: L25-26: “We found evidence for stronger overall habitat selection for natural wetlands than for shellfish aquaculture areas,…” When we refer to habitat selection, the availability of each habitat type must be taken into consideration. A use and availability analysis is usually required before any conclusion on habitat selection is made; otherwise the result is about habitat use, not habitat selection. Although the authors applied iSSA (integrated step selection analysis), the results might not agree with a use and availability analysis. L206: due to not dur to. L296: ”We obtained a mean = 177 ± SE 31 days of Tomales Bay foraging data per tagged great egret,…” Actually, we do not know if great egrets are really foraging based on GPS data even though data have been filtered before data analysis. In Figures 2 and 3, GREG_10 was located between GREG_1 and GREG_2. It is better to arrange them in order. The authors probably can rename the first 6 by GREG_01, GREG_02, etc, and the software will place the GREG_10 into the last place. ********** 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 #2: No |
| Formally Accepted |
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PONE-D-21-19522R1 Great egret (Ardea alba) habitat selection and foraging behavior in a temperate estuary: comparing natural wetlands to areas with shellfish aquaculture Dear Dr. Jennings: 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. Hans-Uwe Dahms Academic Editor PLOS ONE |
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