PONE-D-23-32713The performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red-bed soil in ecological restorationPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhou,

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 Jan 04 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.

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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,

Jianguo Wang, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Numbers: 42293354, 42293351, 42293355, 42277131, 41977230).

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The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Numbers: 42293354, 42293351, 42293355, 42277131, 41977230).

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Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows: 

The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Numbers: 42293354, 42293351, 42293355, 42277131, 41977230).

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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

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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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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

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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: This paper introduces an interesting approach of incorporating weathered red-bed soil as a partial alternative to composite ester materials for ecological restoration. The results show that the developed method has the potential to reduce the cost of ecological restoration by using specific ecological restoration indicators. This is an interesting study and paper can be accepted for publication after some revisions.

• The Abstract should be fortified by including specific quantitative results to provide a clearer snapshot of the findings.

• Within the Introduction, refrain from clustering multiple references at the end of a single sentence. Each cited study offers distinct insights; thus, summarizing the pivotal findings of each will guide readers through the evolution and direction of the research field. In the concluding portion of the Introduction, the authors must distinctly highlight the unique contributions and innovations of their research.

• While the authors embarked on a dual test of the composite properties and ecological impact of the weathered red-bed soil and ester materials, the rationale for this approach wasn't provided. Clarifying the purpose and significance of this test will ensure readers grasp its relevance.

• In the section discussing research content and methods, omit sentences that only serve as basic introductions.

• In the research content and methods section, the determination of the optimal ratio solely based on plant growth indicators from the ester material compounding experiment is limiting. To provide a more comprehensive insight, it would be prudent to consider all indicators listed in Table 1.

• Ensure that figure captions align with their respective mentions in the manuscript. Specifically, there's a discrepancy between Figure 9 and its corresponding reference in the text. Additionally, confirm the correctness of units and the layout of all tables and figures.

• Throughout the paper, it's observed that there's inconsistency in the presentation of significant figures and decimals (e.g., discrepancies between 1.52 and 1.21 in Table 1; 29.98 and 28.6 in Figure 10). Standardizing these figures will enhance the manuscript's precision.

• Figure 6, which delineates the cohesion variation in different ester materials with the inclusion of weathered red-bed soil, should be represented more accurately. Instead of mere curve connections, a fitting method that more closely mirrors the actual change would be more appropriate.

• In the Discussion, there's a palpable gap between the proposed mechanism and the derived experimental data. The proposed explanations lean heavily on inferred logic. To solidify the credibility of the proposed mechanism, drawing more overt correlations between the experimental data and the given interpretations is essential.

• In the Conclusion, initiate with a general statement before diving into point-wise findings.

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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.

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Reviewer #1: No

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PONE-D-23-32713R1The performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red-bed soil in ecological restorationPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhou,

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.

==============================

ACADEMIC EDITOR: 

• Please carefully address the comments from reviewers and improve the quality of the manuscript.  

==============================

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,

Jianguo Wang, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: (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 #2: No

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

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

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

**********

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 deals with the investigation of the performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red bed soil in ecological restoration. The entire manuscript is recommended for a careful and thorough check by a certified proofreading agency to ensure that the revised article is free from grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, etc. The authors have to place the superscripts and subscripts throughout the content correctly. The authors are expected to address the following shortcomings and revise their manuscript by providing valid reasons for each of the queries raised.

1. Abstract: In line 20, the authors can explicitly describe the kind of modification endured by the soil structure.

2. The lines, “the focus in ecological restoration is environmental degradation” in lines 33 and 34 can be avoided as the same has been stated in the first sentence itself. A suitable reference can be cited for the statement describing the effectiveness of ester materials in line 35. It would also be appropriate to mention some ester materials which has proved their efficacy in the same statement.

3. How was the viscosity of the red bed soil determined in the current study? Mention that under methodology. Also, mention the soil classification.

4. What exactly is the synthetic glue referred to in line 160?

5. Referring to Table 3, how are the various comparative statements regarding the properties validated for ester materials and red bed soil?

6. Specifically name the ester material used in the current study as there are physical, chemical, and biological materials used for the same purpose. Since the ester materials were sprayed onto the soil mixture, what is the solubility of these materials in water?

7. From the plant growth line steps listed in line 157, it is understood that there are two soil types used for developing a preliminary soil mix. What is the purpose of taking yellow-brown clay collected from highway sites? Also, the physical properties of red bed soil have not been mentioned in Table 2.

8. In line 185, is there any code followed for determining the scouring resistance? How were the tilt angle and flow rate fixed?

9. In lines 237-239, Why are the results of the variable head test given under the procedure section?

10. In Table 6, provide as a footnote the significance of the notations p, q, and r. The same comment applies to Table 7 also.

11. What is the role played by ester materials in decreasing the erosion rate? How did the hydrophilicity of ester materials and red bed soil affect the phenomenon?

12. If yellow soil is the base soil to which the ester materials and red soil are added, then where are the properties of the untreated yellow soil such as permeability coefficient, erosion rate, shrinkage, etc?

13. In the mechanism, it would be appropriate to discuss the mechanisms related to each property variation in the same order of properties as followed in the previous section.

14. In the entire mechanism explained for the mechanical properties, the role of ester materials and their interaction with the yellow soil has not been elaborated. If the ester materials do not contribute to the improvement in any way, then the purpose of highlighting their properties in Table 3 is defeated.

15. The article fails to explain the synergistic interaction between red bed soil, base soil, and ester material. This aspect needs to be highlighted or certain justifications need to be brought for eliminating these discussions.

16. In the supplementary file, the tables are mentioned as figures. The figures are not made available within the file.

17. The font in Figs. 1a and 1b are not clear and hence need to be replaced. The same comment applies to Figs. 4a, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14a and b, 16. The x-axis of Fig. 1b needs to be written as particle size. There is an issue with the figure numbers within the running text, figure titles, and supplementary files.

18. It is not necessary to mention the values in the trend line in Figs. 5 and 6. There is an overlap of legends in Figs. 6 and 14b.

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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: Prof Arif Ali Baig Moghal

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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.

PONE-D-23-32713R2The performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red-bed soil in ecological restorationPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhou,

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 Mar 03 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,

Jianguo Wang, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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: (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: Partly

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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 deals with the performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red bed soil in ecological restoration. Referring to the revised manuscript and comments provided by the authors, the following changes have been recommended. The article can be considered for publication after making the following changes.

1. The entire manuscript is recommended for a careful and thorough check by a certified proofreading agency to ensure that the revised article is free from grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, etc. The authors have to place the superscripts and subscripts throughout the content correctly.

2. The sentence in lines 17-19 does not provide clarity and the authors are requested to modify it as “The experimental findings indicated that the soil modified using ester materials exhibited an improvement in strength, water retention, and aeration due to change in the soil structure”.

3. Introduction: The authors haven’t mentioned ester materials previously used for soil improvement. Rather, only the references have been cited.

4. In Table 3, the authors can cite the relevant references against each point rather than citing them against the title.

5. Figures 2, 9, and 12 need to be replaced with better-quality images.

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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: Prof Arif Ali Baig Moghal

**********

[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 performance of partially substituted composite ester materials with weathered red-bed soil in ecological restoration

PONE-D-23-32713R3

Dear Dr. Zhou,

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,

Jianguo Wang, PhD

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

**********

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

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

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 authors have addressed my comments raised during the first review. The reviewer is satisfied with their response and recommends acceptance of the revised version of the manuscript.

**********

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: Prof Arif Ali Baig Moghal

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