PONE-D-24-19939Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate HimalayasPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Malik,

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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Susmita Lahiri (Ganguly)

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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7. 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 If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references.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 If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.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.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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: Comments

I have read the exhaustive article on “Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate Himalayas”. In this article, the authors thoroughly document previous literature. However, it is necessary to cite the following research articles in the introduction and methodology sections before publishing.

1. DOI: 10.1007/s11104-023-06016-4

2. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10102078

3. DOI: 10.4236/ojss.2018.82007

Reviewer #2: PAPER PRESENTS NOVEL WORK HOWEVER IT REQUIRES MINOR EDITING IN INTRODUCTION AND DISCUSSION

Landfills are the most affordable and popular method for managing waste in many

parts of the world, However, in most developing nations, including India, the infiltration

of hazardous materials from improperly managed dumping sites continues to be a

significant environmental problem. Around the world, leachate is a significant point

source of contamination in numerous environmental media, including soil,

groundwater, and surface water.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Owais Ali Wani

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Landfill Comments.docx

PONE-D-24-19939R1Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate HimalayasPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Malik,

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 Oct 07 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,

Susmita Lahiri (Ganguly)

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.]

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

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #4: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #5: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #6: (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: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

Reviewer #6: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

Reviewer #5: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: Dear Authors,

The subject of the study is interesting and topical, with scientific and practical importance.

The authors took into account the recommendations of the reviewers and made the necessary corrections.

The article has been considerably improved.

The following aspects are brought to the attention of the authors.

1.Article structure

Page 13, row 101

“Study area:”

Page 14

“Methodology:”

It is recommended to check and revise the structure of chapters (chapter titles), according to the one recommended in the Submission Guidelines, PLOS ONE.

e.g.

“Manuscript Organization”

“Materials and Methods”

2.Writing ionic forms

Page 27, row 348

“Mg2+” instead of “Mg2+”

"2+" as index

Page 30, row 402

“Fe2O3” instead of “Fe2O3”

Page 31, row 404

“Fe2+” instead of “Fe++”

"2+" as index

row 409

“Fe3+” instead of “Fe3+”

"3+" as index

It is recommended to use the Word Equation Editor to write the ionic forms correctly

3.Presentation of the Figures

Figure 14 is presented on page 41

Until figure 14, no other figure is presented in the content of the article.

References are made to the other figures, but they are presented at the end, starting with page 53.

Please check and revise, if necessary, according to the Submission Guidelines, PLOS ONE

4. References

Please check the References chapter, and revise, if necessary, according to the Submission Guidelines, PLOS ONE

Reviewer #4: PLOS ONE- Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate Himalayas

Manuscript Number: PONE-D-24-19939R1

Overall comments

� The manuscript is informative. I am very positive about the manuscript, but it still requires additional work and minor editing before being considered for publication.

� Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements. The paper needs a total revision; especially the results section and the discussion section should be separate.

� Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. Please follow the references style of plos journal formet. Provide DOI no. of the references and try to add recent references. For example ‘Amoakwah E, Arthur E, Frimpong KA, Islam KR. Biochar Amendment Influences Tropical Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Lability. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. 2021; 21: 3567–3579. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/s42729-021-00628-4’’

Specific comments

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2. Please insert the title of the figure or table just below the text. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements

3. It would be better to separate the results section and the discussion section. Please check the PLOS ONE's style.

4. Rewrite the discussion section.

5. Please follow the reference style of PLOS ONE's style. Provide DOI no. of the references and try to add recent references. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. For example ‘’Amoakwah E, Arthur E, Frimpong KA, Islam KR. Biochar Amendment Influences Tropical Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Lability. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. 2021; 21: 3567–3579. http://dx.doi. org/10.1007/s42729-021-00628-4’’

6. Please check the front style of headline, sub-headline and text front. Please check the PLOS ONE's style.

7. If possible try to reduce no of figures. No. of fig 14 is too high.

8. Please check line no. 58. Remove double full stop.

9. Please check line no. 84. Close bracket

10. Please check line no. 90. Check the space

11. Please check line no. 108. Remove bracket

12. Please check line no. 121. Edit space

13. Please check line no. 121, 150, 121. Edit space

14. Please check line no. 312, 314, 352, and 354 and so on. Why are the numbers bold?

15. Please check Table 3, column 8. Some words are overlapped

16. Please check line no. 474, 476,506. Please check the line spacing

17. Please provide declaration, consent for publication and conflict of interest from the manuscript and add in a separate file to PLOS ONE's online system. Only Acknowledgement and Author contributions would be attached with the article.

18. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements.

Reviewer #5: A brief study on "Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate

Himalayas" has been conducted by the authors. The major concern is the content of toxic elements like Pb, Cd, Ni, As and Cr in the leachate. This will help the environmentalist and planner of the region for sustainable development goals for the locality.

Please mention the safe limit of all the parameters studied in this work for soil just like Pb, Cd, Ni, As and Cr.

Reviewer #6: 1. Abstract: Grammatical correction is required in lines- 15, 19, 29, 30, 33-36, 41. Punctuation correction is required in lines-30, 34.

2. Introduction: Too much narration on soil health in the introduction section (lines 54-64) while less description of the keywords -landfill and leachate. An individual paragraph on Achan landfill and leachate could be helpful for better understanding and reading. Coordination of the paragraphs in the introduction section is suggested. Grammatical and punctuation correction is required in all through the introduction section (lines- 45-47, 52,54,58, 60-68, 81, 82).

3. Study area: No indication of the area in the sampling site. Precise information about the sampling site is needed. Grammatical and punctuation correction is required in the study area section- 108,112,113

4. Methodology: No indication of year of sampling. Why sampling was done in those locations? Are those sites the leachate outflow sites? Authors analyzed only soils. But analysis of both soil and leachate would give a clear understanding about the impact of landfill leachate on soil quality. Grammatical and punctuation correction is required in the methodology section (lines- 120-122, 140)

5. Result and discussion: I suggest to establish a relationship among pH, EC and element concentration.

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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: No

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: Yes: Dr. Rakhi Rani Sarker

Senior Scientific Officer

Soil Science Division

Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture,

Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

E-mail: rrssarker@gmail.com

Reviewer #5: No

Reviewer #6: Yes: Prof. Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam

**********

[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.

Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-19939_R1_reviewer_revised.pdf

PONE-D-24-19939R2Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate HimalayasPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Malik,

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 Dec 13 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,

Susmita Lahiri (Ganguly)

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.]

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 #3: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #6: 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 #3: Yes

Reviewer #6: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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 #3: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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 #3: Yes

Reviewer #6: 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 #3: Dear Authors,

The subject of the study is interesting and topical, with scientific and practical importance.

The authors took into account the recommendations of the reviewers and made the necessary corrections.

The article has been considerably improved.

The following minor aspects are brought to the attention of the authors.

1.

Space between the bibliographic source number and the previous word

e.g.

"Gomez [16]."

2.

Central positioning of all values in the table columns.

e.g.

Table 1

3.

Space between the value and the unit of measure

e.g.

"0.98 mg/kg"

Some suggestions were made in the article.

Reviewer #6: The authors have revised the manuscript as per my comments and suggestions. Now the manuscript has become sound scientifically.

**********

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Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #6: Yes: Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-24-19939_R2_reviewer_revised.pdf

Landfill leachate: an invisible threat to soil quality of temperate Himalayas

PONE-D-24-19939R3

Dear Dr. Malik,

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,

Susmita Lahiri (Ganguly)

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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