PONE-D-24-10502Optimizing plastic mulching to improve maize yield and water use efficiency in Loess Plateau, ChinaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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.

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A better title of the paper can be thought of. 

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Please submit your revised manuscript by Jun 22 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:

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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.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Debarati Bhaduri, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. Thank you for stating the following financial disclosure:

“This research has been supported by the Fuxi youth talent training program” of Gansu Agricultural University (Gaufx-03Y10), the construction project of the "Innovative Team for Water Saving Irrigation and Water Resource Regulation in Arid Irrigation Areas" in the discipline of water conservancy engineering at Gansu Agricultural University (2023-38) and the Gansu Provincial Water Conservancy Science Experimental Research and Technology Promotion Program project (23GSLK047).”

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Please include this amended Role of Funder statement in your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

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“We thank the “Fuxi youth talent training program” of Gansu Agricultural University (Gaufx-03Y10), the construction project of the "Innovative Team for Water Saving Irrigation and Water Resource Regulation in Arid Irrigation Areas" in the discipline of water conservancy engineering at Gansu Agricultural University (2023-38) and the Gansu Provincial Water Conservancy Science Experimental Research and Technology Promotion Program project (23GSLK047) for providing financial support.”

We note that you have provided funding information that is currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

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:

“This research has been supported by the Fuxi youth talent training program” of Gansu Agricultural University (Gaufx-03Y10), the construction project of the "Innovative Team for Water Saving Irrigation and Water Resource Regulation in Arid Irrigation Areas" in the discipline of water conservancy engineering at Gansu Agricultural University (2023-38) and the Gansu Provincial Water Conservancy Science Experimental Research and Technology Promotion Program project (23GSLK047).”

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Additional Editor Comments:

Authors are requested to follow the detailed comments provided by Reviewer 1 and Reviewer 2, while each response should be recorded in a formal author response letter.

A better title can be opted.

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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: No

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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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: No

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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: Dear Authors

Congratulations for nice peace of research on "Optimizing plastic mulching to improve maize yield and water use efficiency in Loess Plateau, China".

The manuscript provides comparable scientific results for soil moisture, temperature, growth and yield attributes of maize crop, water use efficiency and economic returns as influenced by different methods of mulching with and without straw both in flat bed as well as ridge and furrow land configuration. All these mulching methods were also compared with ridge-furrow uncovered and traditional flat bed planting methods.

The manuscript contains all the relevant technical information and conclusions are being supported with sufficient data with statistical analysis which were presented intelligently in whole manuscript.

However author needs to be verified some of the technical writings which needs significant improvement in the manuscript viz., soil evaporation (it may soil moisture evaporation), maize water (It may be the water in maize crop), rained (it may be rain fed) etc.

Following sentence lines may be verified in the edited version of manuscript:

Line 31: Soil evaporation

Line 33: The soil temperature and increase in yield of maize.

Line 34: Add suitable reference in support of the statement made.

Line 40: study of efficient water resource utilization in maize crop.

Line 41: maize yield

Line 47: methods were investigated

Line 57: Soil properties were pH.....

Line 80: Soil moisture (suitable Ref.)

Line 89: What is SWS abbreviate the same

Line 91: Soil temperature (Ref. if any)

Line 97: plant fixation observation.. clarify the fixation word here

Line 125: rained (it may be raifed)

Line 299: Connect and continue the sentence

The author may kindly correct the whole document in the light or errors enumerated above. Further the data presented in the manuscript is for only one season which has to be reproduced in the similar set of experiment for one more season for consistency of the information's generated. Therefore manuscript may be supported with data of two cropping seasons.

Reviewer #2: The research entitled “Optimizing plastic mulching to improve maize yield and water use efficiency in Loess Plateau, China” highlighting the significance of in-situ water and its impact on soil moisture and temperature regime as well as crop response. The study is well thought and designed. Overall manuscript is good, however here are some of critical miss in the present version of manuscript. Most importantly, message from author is tough to understand which need to revisit.

Abstract:

• Different mulching practices “of maize growth”, soil should be “On maize growth” [line7]

• Rewrite the sentence “The results showed that compared with CK and NJ, the soil moisture and soil moisture………… [line 11-12]

• Specify the Black mulch, is it black plastic? Mulch straw of which crop/biomass?

• What was the liquid used as “Liquid mulch”? Specify

• Rewrite the sentence “Application to the 2019 maize of 830 kg ha-1 (compound fertilizer, N-P2O5- K2O5=18-12-10) and 7,500 kg ha-1 (organic fertilizer) before sowing of maize in 2019, and without irrigation throughout the reproductive period” [line – 73-75].

• What author want to highlight not clear in the paragraph from line 72 – 78, rewrite.

Introduction: okay

Materials and Methods: Appropriate

• Given the fact that no external water was supplied to the crop, soil water holding capacity and moisture content at FC and PWP should be given for particular soil.

• Detailed methodological description is required for APH-TOPSIS models for better understanding.

Result and Discussion:

• Include the nutrient profile of Milk Vetch which was incorporated in the pot experiments.

• The title of figure-5 is not appropriate, as it is representing the parodic soil moisture pattern instead of daily moisture content. May be revised

• There is no preceding crop mention in the manuscript but moisture storage at pre-planting differs significantly while it was non-significant at post-planting despite the higher standard deviation (figure-6). Given the fact that, crop moisture drawing is supposed to differ significantly due to contrasting difference in the mulching type and source. Proper justification may be incorporated.

• LSD value or alphabetic depicting missing in figure -9.

• Result interpretation for APH-TOPSIS is improper. Need to rephased.

• Moreover, Discussion part if very constrained which may be even more elaborative correlating the findings of present experiment.

Conclusion: A future implication statement is missing.

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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.

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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Shiv Vendra Singh

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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-24-10502R1Optimizing plastic film mulch to improve the yield and water use efficiency of dryland maize in the Loess Plateau, ChinaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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 Aug 30 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,

Debarati Bhaduri, 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.

Additional Editor Comments:

I must advise to check these as one of the reviewers pointed out-

• For economic assessment, cost of cultivation and per unit price/cost should be given.

• Is there any significance of including alphabets in rainfall data as it is not a variable (table 3).

• Dryland harvesting treatment pattern in line 453-455 does not make sense, please specify the meaning!

Point-to-point response to comments by Reviewer 1 should be provided.

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

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: (No Response)

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 #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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 #1: (No Response)

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 manuscript contains all the relevant technical information produced scientifically but the conclusions made needs to be verified for the reproducibility of the information which was also requested in the first reviewer report. For this authors may include the experimental results for multiple seasons/years of experimentation and resubmit the manuscript for consideration.

Reviewer #2: Authors have addressed the queries raised in the submitted manuscript. Revised manuscript is well structured compared to previous version. Manuscript can be accepted after minor inclusions. I shall suggest to critically check the language.

• For economic assessment, cost of cultivation and per unit price/cost should be given.

• Is there any significance of including alphabets in rainfall data as it is not a variable (table 3).

• Dryland harvesting treatment pattern in line 453-455 does not make sense, please specify the meaning!

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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: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Shiv Vendra Singh

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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.

Optimizing plastic film mulch to improve the yield and water use efficiency of dryland maize in the Loess Plateau, China

PONE-D-24-10502R2

Dear Dr. Zhang,

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 will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, 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,

Debarati Bhaduri, 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

**********

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: (No Response)

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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: (No Response)

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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: The authors have addressed all the comments, and the revised manuscript is scientifically sound to be considered.

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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: Shiv Vendra Singh

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