PONE-D-23-21061Long-term effects of buried vertebrate carcasses on soil biogeochemistry in the Northern Great PlainsPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Keenan,

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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 authors present a very well written study that explores the impacts of vertebrate decomposition over a temporal scale not commonly published.

The results relating to isotopic changes over time were particularly interesting, though overall I thought that the microbial changes could have been better investigated.

Reviewer #2: Review of “Long term effects of buried vertebrate carcasses on soil biogeochemistry in the northern great plains”.

Summary:

This manuscript describes a study on soil changes associated with the decomposition of vertebrate remains 21 years after burial. A range of physicochemical measures were made at different depths above and below the remains, and compared with a nearby control site at equivalent depths. Key findings relate to pH, phosphorus, and C/N isotopes, and some interpretation of these findings are provided in the discussion.

Overall review:

I found this paper to be very well written and easy to read. It covers a fascinating topic (heterotrophic decomposition) and addresses a neglected area of study in this particular field (soil). My opinion is that this work should be published, and it will likely be of interested to many ecologists and soil scientists worldwide. The study is largely fine as is (but see comments on interaction terms), and my comments below are suggestions for the author’s consideration only.

• LL30/31 specify that P concentrations relate to your acid extractions

• L106 whats the difference between duration and longevity?

• L265 should this be “mean ‘and’ standard deviation”?

• L270 you explain that you conducted PCA first, then your ANOVAs, but your results report ANOVAs first, then PCAs. I suggest presenting your PCA results first to be consistent with your methods.

• L275 a two-way ANOVA is fine, but this should also include the interaction term treatment*depth, yes? I cant see this reported in your results section. To me, this is an important oversight, as several of your plots show a likely significant interaction term, despite no main effect of treatment. For example, Figure 7 shows that P has a higher [] at depth for your carcass site – I would expect this to be shown in a significant interaction term but its not reported, why?

• L329 change to past tense – “this was not significant”.

• L375 as above – where is the interaction term? The difference between the treatments might not be significant, sure, but this will be dependent on the depth.

• LL480-490 very nice discussion of your P results. Interesting stuff.

• Table 1 – why these “selected” studies and not others? It seems like there is an opportunity here to provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date list. Excluding forensic studies (i.e. pigs and humans), I can think of maybe another 5 or 6 surface soil studies using a range of carcass types (rabbits, deer etc) from around the world.

• Figure 1 is excellent. A nice diagram with good predictions.

• Figs 6 + 7, see comment above regarding interaction terms. These should be reported first where significant, then main effects of treatment of depth reported second.

• Figure 8, as noted above, your PCA ordination plot should be presented before your ANOVA results to be consistent with your methods.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Philip Barton

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Long-term effects of buried vertebrate carcasses on soil biogeochemistry in the Northern Great Plains

PONE-D-23-21061R1

Dear Dr. Keenan,

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,

John P. Hart, 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

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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

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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

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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: Revisions have been made appropriately. A nice study that will add some important new information to the field.

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Reviewer #2: Yes: Philip Barton

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