PONE-D-23-28238The effect of modifier and a water-soluble fertilizer on two forages grown in saline-alkaline soilPLOS ONE

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1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: 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

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Reviewer #1: 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: Introduction

This section lacks significant information about the deleterious impacts of sline soil on crop growth and development. In L41: before '' In order to ensure……'' The following paragraph is essential to be inserted in introduction section

• Salinity stress causes disturbance in plant physiological status (Abd El-Mageed et al. 2022; Lasheen et al. 2023) and imbalance nutrient absorption ((Mubarak et al. 2021; Salem et at. 2021)), causing week growth and low crop productivity and quality (Saudy et al. 2023; Shaaban et al. 2023)

Abd El-Mageed TA, Mekdad AAA, Rady MOA, Abdelbaky AS, Saudy HS, Shaaban A (2022) Physio-biochemical and agronomic changes of two sugar beet cultivars grown in saline soil as influenced by potassium fertilizer. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 22:3636-3654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-00916-7

Lasheen FF, Hewidy M, Abdelhamid AN, Thabet RS, Abass MMM, Fahmy Asmaa A, Saudy HS, Hassan KM (2023) Exogenous application of humic acid mitigates salinity stress on pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira) plant by adjusting the osmolytes and nutrient homeostasis. Gesunde Pflanzen. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-023-00939-9

Mubarak M, Salem EMM, Kenawey MKM, Saudy HS (2021) Changes in calcareous soil activity, nutrient availability, and corn productivity due to the integrated effect of straw mulch and irrigation regimes. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 21:2020-2031. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00498-w

Salem EMM, Kenawey MKM, Saudy HS, Mubarak M (2021) Soil mulching and deficit irrigation effect on sustainability of nutrients availability and uptake, and productivity of maize grown in calcareous soils. Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 52: 1745-1761. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2021.1892733

Saudy HS, Salem EMM, Abd El–Momen WR (2023) Effect of potassium silicate and irrigation on grain nutrient uptake and water use efficiency of wheat under calcareous soils. Gesunde Pflanzen. 75: 647-654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-022-00729-9

Shaaban A, Abd El-Mageed TA, Abd El-Momen WR, Saudy HS, Al-Elwany OAAI (2023) The integrated application of phosphorous and zinc affects the physiological status, yield and quality of canola grown in phosphorus-suffered deficiency saline soil. Gesunde Pflanzen. 75: 1813-1821. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-023-00843-2

• The study involved the use of rice straw as a source of preparing hydrochar. Accordingly the background in Introduction section should be supported by knowledge related to the agricultural wastes and recycling before taking about biochar as follow:

It has been documented that amending soils, especially that suffering from environmental stresses, has a favorable effect on different soil properties (Saudy et al. 2021a; Abd–Elrahman et al. 2022; Ali et al. 2023). Thus, soil productivity and crop quality were improved by exploiting the recycled plant residues (El-Metwally et al. 2022a; El-Metwally et al. 2022b; Saudy et al. 2022).

Saudy HS, El-Bially, MA, Ramadan KhA, Abo El–Nasr EKh, Abd El-Samad GA (2021a) Potentiality of soil mulch and sorghum extract to reduce the biotic stress of weeds with enhancing yield and nutrient uptake of maize crop. Gesunde Pflanzen. 73:555-564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-021-00577-z

Abd–Elrahman ShH, Saudy HS, Abd El–Fattah DA, Hashem FA (2022) Effect of irrigation water and organic fertilizer on reducing nitrate accumulation and boosting lettuce productivity. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 22:2144-2155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-00799-8

Ali IAA, Hassan Soheir E, Abdelhafez AA, Hewidy M, Nasser MA, Saudy HS, Hassan KM, Abou-Hadid AF (2023) Modifying the growing media and bio stimulants supply for healthy gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii) flowers Gesunde Pflanzen. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-023-00943-z

El-Metwally IM Geries L, Saudy HS (2022a) Interactive effect of soil mulching and irrigation regime on yield, irrigation water use efficiency and weeds of trickle–irrigated onion. Archiv. Agron. Soil Sci. 68:1103-1116. https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2020.1869723

El-Metwally IM, Saudy HS, Elewa TA (2022b) Natural plant by-products and mulching materials to suppress weeds and improve sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) yield and quality. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 22:5217-5230 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-00997-4

Saudy HS, El-Metwally IM, Sobieh ST, Abd-Alwahed SHA (2022) Mycorrhiza, charcoal, and rocket salad powder as eco-friendly methods for controlling broomrape weed in inter-planted faba bean with flax. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 22:5195-5206 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-00995-6

• L69 support the sentence "Biochar is a novel soil modifier method for saline-alkali soil that significantly improves soil nutrients and properties" by the following citations

(El-Bially et al. 2023; Saudy et al. 2021b)

El-Bially MA, El-Metwally IM, Saudy HS, Aisa KH, Abd El-Samad GA (2023) Mycorrhiza-inoculated biochar as an eco-friendly tool improves the broomrape control efficacy in two faba bean cultivars. Rhizosphere 26:100706 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhisph.2023.100706

Saudy HS, Hamed MF, El–Metwally IM, Ramadan KhA, Aisa KH (2021b) Assessing the effect of biochar or compost application as a spot placement on broomrape control in two cultivars of faba bean. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 21:1856-1866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00485-1

Materials and methods

This section should be fully restructured

• L113: the author mentioned The amount of soil modifier from 10 g/kg……..Also, the same sentence was written in L122. There is overlapping between talking about modifier and soluble fertilizer

• Concerning measuring indicators and method, why authors did not add the related information in M&M section. It is not favorable to be added as supporting information. Further, I can no reach this file (supporting information)

• What is the academic reference used in Statistical analysis

Discussion

• L329: support the citation no. [29] by the following:

Makhlouf et al. 2022; Ramadan et al. 2023; Saudy et al.2020)

Makhlouf BSI, Khalil SRA, Saudy HS (2022) Efficacy of humic acids and chitosan for enhancing yield and sugar quality of sugar beet under moderate and severe drought. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr. 22:1676-1691. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-00762-7

Ramadan KMA, El-Beltagi HS, Abd El-Mageed TAA, Saudy HS, Al-Otaibi HH, Mahmoud MAA (2023) The changes in various physio-biochemical parameters and yield traits of faba bean due to humic acid plus 6-benzylaminopurine application under deficit irrigation. Agron 13:1227. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051227

Saudy HS, Hamed MF, Abd El–Momen WR, Hussein H (2020) Nitrogen use rationalization and boosting wheat productivity by applying packages of humic, amino acids and microorganisms. Comm. Soil Sci. Plant Anal 51:1036-1047. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2020.1744631

• L344: support the citation no. [33] by the following:

(Abou El-Enin et al. 2023; Elgala et al. 2022)

Abou El-Enin MM, Sheha AM, El-Serafy Rasha S, Ali OAM, Saudy HS, Shaaban A (2023) Foliage-sprayed nano-chitosan-loaded nitrogen boosts yield potentials, competitive ability, and profitability of intercropped maize-soybean. Inter J Plant Prod 17: 517-542. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42106-023-00253-4

Elgala AM, Abd-Elrahman ShH, Saudy HS, Nossier MI (2022) Exploiting Eichhornia crassipes shoots extract as a natural source of nutrients for producing healthy tomato plants. Gesunde Pflanzen. 74:457-465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10343-022-00622-5

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PONE-D-23-28238R1The effect of modifier and a water-soluble fertilizer on two forages grown in saline-alkaline soilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chang,

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 Feb 09 2024 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,

Mehdi Rahimi, 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.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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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: 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

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

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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 #1: The authors addressed the required corrections.

There no comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics.

Reviewer #2: Though most of the suggestions have been addressed but the introduction need further refinement with clear objectives and hypothesis.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-23-28238R2The effect of modifier and a water-soluble fertilizer on two forages grown in saline-alkaline soilPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chang,

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 Feb 28 2024 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,

Mehdi Rahimi, 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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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: 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: 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: Please replace soda saline-alkali soil with saline -alkali soil or sodic soil through out the manuscript. Because soda saline-alkali soils are same as sodic or saline -alkali soil. If author wish to explain it differently, please submit your response. The data in tabular form is minimal, as the table data give better idea of each treatments and their interaction with other factor. Hence can be included for better understanding.

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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: Sanjay Singh Rathore

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[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.

The effect of modifier and a water-soluble fertilizer on two forages grown in saline-alkaline soil

PONE-D-23-28238R3

Dear Dr. Chang,

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,

Mehdi Rahimi, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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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: 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: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #2: The manuscript is now improved significantly. As the authors have addressed all the concern raised and incorporated these in revised manuscript. Hence may be accepted for publication.

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Reviewer #2: Yes: Sanjay Singh Rathore

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