PONE-D-22-25341The concurrent impacts of drought and leaf harvesting on two traditional African vegetable non-timber forest product speciesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Sinasson S.,

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Authors

The manuscript "The concurrent impacts of drought and leaf harvesting on two traditional African vegetable non-timber forest product species" needs major revisions according to the reviewer comments before to be considered for publication on 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: Yes

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: 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

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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 concurrent impacts of drought and leaf harvesting on two traditional African vegetable non-timber forest product species

The manuscript is well-written and can be of interest to readers of Plos One. The study aimed to investigate leaf production, morphological and growth in response to drought and leaf harvesting in Amaranthus and Bidens. The results showed significant effects of drought on both species. Amaranthus was more resilient to reduction in daily watering than reduction in the frequency, while Biden was resilient to all the drought stress treatments. In Amaranthus basal diameter, growth, leaf production and survival increased with harvesting after first harvest. After second harvest, there was decrease in plant height and leaf production. In Biden the impact was only significant on survival and leaf production (after first harvest). The results showed the possible negative impact of harvesting on these species.

My major concern about this manuscript is related to the experimental procedure. Information about the soil water tension is missing. Likewise, there is no information about leaf water content or leaf water potential

Specifics:

Methods: This section needs major improvement.

A topsoil was used in the experiment.

However, Information about the water tension of the soil under the drought treatment is missing. This information is important; otherwise it will be difficult repeating the experiment. I suggest adding this information, if available.

Also, I suggest describing soil texture, as this trait affect water holding capacity.

It is also missing the leaf water potential (or leaf water content) of plant subjected to water stress. If available, I suggest adding these data.

Climatic conditions:

I suggest adding a figure describing the climatic conditions (light, relative humidity, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration) within the greenhouse during the experimental period.

Replications

L169: Information about the number of replications per treatment is missing. I suggest adding it.

L141: … The maximum temperature in … ranged 18ºC-32ºC in

Suggestion: … the experiment, ranged from 18ºC to xx ºC in ..

(see others).

Results:

L245: effect size of the drought … was slightly weaker for Amaranthus sp. than for B. pilosa

" was slightly weaker " ?

I suggest adding the p values after " was slightly weaker "

(see others)

The n value in Tables 2:

Table 2: The sample size (n value) is missing. I suggest adding the n for each species. See others (e.g. Table 3, 5, 6).

Discussion:

On the negative growth (e.g.Table 3, 6).

I suggest commenting on this topic

Reviewer #2: Introduction

- Is well written with enough citation on the subject matter.

Methods

- In the methodology, I suggest the author should include some pictures in order to attract the reader.

- Tables should be re-drawn scientifically

- However, there are some issues I have raised (see them in the attached revised manuscript) that needs to be addressed by the author

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Revised manuscript.pdf

The concurrent impacts of drought and leaf harvesting on two traditional African vegetable non-timber forest product species

PONE-D-22-25341R1

Dear Dr. Sinasson S.,

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,

Cataldo Pulvento

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Dear Authors

the manuscript "he concurrent impacts of drought and leaf harvesting on two traditional African vegetable non-timber forest product species" is accepted in the current form

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: (No Response)

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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

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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 #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: Suggestions I made on the original version were observed, and those not taken into account were properly addressed.

I have no further comment our suggestion.

Reviewer #2: I have gone through the revised manuscript and realize that, authors have addressed all concerns that I

raised and I am now comfortable and the manuscript can be further processed for publication

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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: Yes: Ricardo A. Marenco

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr. Mhuji Kilonzo

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