PONE-D-23-42173Influence of freeze-thaw and root combined action on soil mechanical characteristics and stability in the water-level-fluctuating zone of Baijiabao landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area​PLOS ONE

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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?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: This paper entitled “Influence of freeze-thaw and root combined action on soil mechanical characteristics and stability in the water-level-fluctuating zone of Baijiabao landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area” discusses the strength variation of soil under the combined action of freeze-thaw and root system, and the resistance of root reinforcement to freeze-thaw deterioration is quantitatively expressed. The paper may be valuable for the civil engineering community. However, it needs some significant improvements before further processing.

Title: Title is very long. Please edit and revise the title and write more suitable title.

Abstract: The abstract should ideally include the main contributions and implications of the study. The abstract section should be improved considering the following structure: Introduction, problem statement, methodology, results, and conclusion.

Introduction: The introduction provides a clear and concise overview of the research topic, setting the stage for the study.

Please add a paragraph at the beginning of introduction about effect of natural effect such as freeze-thaw and dry-wet cycles on geotechnical parameters of geomaterials. Consider providing more context or background information to help readers understand the significance of the research problem.

The literature review needs to be completed, and it is not apparent what the novelty of this paper is. Your literature review should be updated. There are many new papers related to your research: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0003905, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-023-03427-6.

At the end of the Introduction, where the author introduces the central claim of his research or reasserts this claim, the paper should be including a paragraph to explain the importance of the subject, novelty, and originality of the paper.

materials and methods: Please write soil type based on USCS classification.

Please write in more details about the details of wave velocity test.

Test scheme: Please present a Table with more details instead of Table 2 for test program for showing details of tests.

On what basis have the number and temperatures of freeze-thaw cycles been chosen?

Results: in my opinion “results and dissection” is more suitable than “results and analysis” for section 3.

Ensure that all figures and tables are properly labeled and referred to in the text.

After summarizing your key findings, compare your results with previous studies.

The Manuscript should be polished by native speakers or a designated editing company to improve readability.

Some quantitative findings should support the conclusion. Please write the conclusion in more detail.

Reviewer #2: Your manuscript "Influence of freeze-thaw and root combined action on soil mechanical characteristics and stability in the water-level-fluctuating zone of Baijiabao landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area"(PONE-D-23-42173) requires amendment. Although it is of interest, several details need to be clarified or corrected.

1. In line 37. “Compared to ordinary soil, the soil in the water-level-fluctuating zone has a substantially greater water content and the degradation in the soil of the water-level-fluctuating zone is more severe.” Is there a direct basis for this conclusion to be introduced as background? Citing relevant literature to strengthen the testimony is a good way to improve.

2. In line 78. “lt is a typical soil landslide induced by the failure of shallow soil strength caused by freeze-thaw action.” However, in line 82, the maximum freezing depth of soil is about 30 cm. Is the actual depth of the sliding belt only 30cm? It is recommended that this be explained in the text or in a diagram.

3. The gradation curve of soil sample in Fig.2 is incomplete. According to the standard of geotechnical test method, when the mass of the specimen with particle size less than 0.075mm is more than 10% of the total mass, the composition of the particles with particle size less than 0.075mm should be determined according to the densitometer method or pipette method.

4. In line 94. Previous pull-out test results are mentioned. However, no relevant literature citations or experimental results are given or presented.

5. According to Figure 4, the highest measured root content in the field was over 20%, while the experimental design was as high as 90%?

6. The layout of Table 2 is not aesthetically pleasing, and the parentheses try not to be misplaced.

7. Figure 5 is too redundant, flowcharts and diagrams of experimental procedures should be concise and clear, and detailed descriptions already in the text are not recommended to be repeated in flowcharts.

8. About Shear Strength Parameters. In general, fully saturated specimens of triaxial UU tests have only one effective stress Mohr's circle at the time of damage, and the envelope of the damage Mohr's circle for all the different enclosing pressures is a nearly horizontal straight line. It is therefore not possible to determine an effective shear strength parameters by measuring pore water pressure. It is usually only used to determine the undrained shear strength Cu. Therefore the angle of internal friction in Fig. 9(b) taken to 17° is needed to discussion. A detailed description of the triaxial test and shear strength parameters can be found in the soil mechanics textbook.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Meysam Bayat

Reviewer #2: No

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​Effect of freeze‒thaw cycles on root–soil composite mechanical properties and slope stability

PONE-D-23-42173R1

Dear Dr. Luo,

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.

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Kind regards,

Shaker Qaidi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Dear Authors,

I am pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for publication in our journal.

The reviewers acknowledged the importance of your work and found that it makes a significant contribution to the field. Your research methods were sound, the data supports the conclusions, and the paper is well-written overall.

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

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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

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

Reviewer #1: 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 #1: 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

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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 new version of the paper is wholly modified compared to the original version, and the article is acceptable for publication.

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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 #1: Yes: Meysam Bayat

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