PONE-D-22-14894Bentonite clay mixed with different N sources significantly reduce nitrate leaching from sandy soilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zahid Hussain,

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.

​The title and introduction of this manuscript needs to be revised thoroughly. Similarly, there are some serious concerns existed on English language used in this manuscript. 

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Waqas ud Din Khan, 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: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: 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: Reviewed manuscript “Bentonite clay mixed with different N sources significantly reduce1

nitrate leaching from sandy soil” is an original and interesting study. Authors comprehensively evaluated the nitrate leaching in sandy soil that is beneficial for both environment and agriculture. I would suggest minor revision.

Following are some suggestions for further improvements:

From the title, I would suggest you to remove the words “mixed” and “significantly” to make it more catchy.

In abstract results should be extended to few more lines.

Journal format need to be followed regarding citations write up in text.

Introduction and Discussion section needs to further strengthen by latest studies on the subject.

Line 105: Company name and details for used material should incorporate

Line 106: for chemical for physical and chemical properties should be corrected

Line 120: Sentence not correct

Figure legends are too brief.

At some places in the text, there are grammatical mistakes that needs to be corrected by some native English colleague.

To further strengthen introduction, following latest studies etc. are suggested to cite:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2019.110270

https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2019.1648669

Reviewer #2: General remarks:

1- The manuscript has an average quality of data. There must be some more experiments which supports different adsorption models to make the quality of this manuscript more better

2- The introduction part has not enough citations which is necessary to support your statements of manuscript.

3- Most of the references are old, there must be recent references from 2018 to onwards.

4- In the whole manuscript please replace NO3 to NO3−1

5- The discussion has been elaborated in a good way but it needs recent references.

6- Format all the references in the reference list according to PLOS ONE journal. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html

Comment 1: please edit the title from “Bentonite clay mixed with different N sources significantly reduce nitrate leaching from sandy soil” to “Bentonite clay mixed with different nitrogen sources, significantly reduce nitrate leaching from sandy soil.”

Comment 2: line number 44 should be like “may lead to an increase in the use of fertilizers.” Instead of “will/may lead to an increase in the use of fertilizers.”

Comment 3: in the start of line 47 there is no reference cited after the word atmosphere.

Comment 4: from line 50 to 53 “Developing an effective technology to retain nutrients in soils is imperative to prevent NO3 leaching from soils. Soil amendments have been considered as management practice to reduce NO3 losses from sandy soils (Irshad et al., 2014). Bentonite, an alumina-siliceous clay material, has not been previously utilized to control NO3 leaching.”

There is no synchronization with the ongoing paragraph.

Comment 5: from line 47 to line 51 there is no single reference has been observed. Please support your statements with published research work.

Comment 6: in line 59 there must be root length instead of rooting length.

Comment 7: line 77 to 78 there is no supporting reference has been found. Please write a proper reference.

Comment 8: from line 84 to 87, the author discussed about different amendments to control nitrogen leaching. Author must elaborate that how many percent the amendment improved the nitrogen leaching as compare to control treatment.

Comment 9: in the last paragraph of introduction from 92 to 96, there must be proper objectives of the aimed study. Please write it.

Comment 10: in line 97 “Lysimeter experiment” has been described well but there is no supporting reference which describe that from where the author generated the idea.

Comment 11: in Fig.1, author must use subscript letters for representing the chemical formulas e.g [CO(NH2)2] should be written as [CO(NH2)2] please do it for the rest also.

Comment 12: in the line 123, the author discussed about water holding capacity analysis but did not mentioned the reference at the end. Please cite a reference to support the analysis method.

Comment 13: why there are double brackets in line 137 and 138 “((0 fertilizer, [Ca(NO3)2], [NH4Cl] and [CO(NH2)2])).” Please remove them.

Comment 14: from line 242 to 249 there is no supporting reference has been cited.

Comment 15: in the line 258, the NO3 should be written as NO3.

Reviewer #3: I would suggest to authors to address following comments,

How different sources of N applied NO3 leaching from sandy soil? What could be mechanistic explanation of this process.

Line 45-47, should be supported by doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7894-4

Significant amount of references are more than 15-20 years old, they need to be updated. For example, The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the standard for drinking water and health advisory level of 10 mg L-1 nitrate based on the human health risks (Kross et al., 1993), which is a very old figure.

Authors did not develop a link between NO3 leaching and sandy soil, they have provided a generalized overview of NO3 leaching in soil, but did not explain in the context of sandy soil and why authors have used sandy soil in this study?

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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.

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: Yes: Fiza Pir Dad

Reviewer #3: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review Report.docx

PONE-D-22-14894R1Bentonite clay with different nitrogen sources reduce nitrate leaching from sandy soilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhaid Hussain

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 Dec 19 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,

Waqas ud Din Khan, Ph. D.

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.

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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 #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: 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 #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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

Reviewer #3: Yes

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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: Yes

Reviewer #3: 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 #2: line no 105: please write here three sources names in objectives.

Line 32: The effects of bentonite clay on NO3 -1leaching from sandy soils are not

extensively studied. Author is sure that he is not using the sandy soil?

Line 55: The N fertilizers, used either as urea or ammonium form, is biochemically converted to NO3-1 which is susceptible to leaching from soil-plant system and enter groundwater bodies.

Please rewrite the line by replacing is with are.

Line 61, 73: NO3 should be replaced with NO3-1.

Reviewer #3: Authors have revised the manuscript and can be accepted in current form for publication. This is a very interested study and have showed the combination of Bentonite clay with different nitrogen sources to reduce N leaching from sandy soils.

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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 #2: Yes: Fiza Pir Dad

Reviewer #3: 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.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-22-14894_R1-.pdf

Bentonite clay with different nitrogen sources can effectively reduce nitrate leaching from sandy soil

PONE-D-22-14894R2

Dear Dr. Zahid Hussain,

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,

Waqas ud Din Khan, 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 #2: 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 #2: Partly

**********

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: 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 #2: The manuscript is in good from now. Author has successfully addressed all the comments according to my expertise. I recommend this article to publish in Plos One.

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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 #2: Yes: Fiza Pir Dad

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