Composted Sewage Sludge Application Reduces Mineral Fertilization Requirements and Improves Soil Fertility in Sugarcane Seedling Nurseries
, Raimunda Eliane Nascimento do Nascimento 2, Nathércia Castro Elias 2, Karen Cossi Kawakami 1, Cassio Hamilton Abreu-Junior 3, Fernando Carvalho Oliveira 4, Arun Dilipkumar Jani 5, Zhenli He 6, Fengliang Zhao 7, Marcelo Carvalho Minhoto Teixeira Filho 1, Raffaela Rossetto 8, Gian Franco Capra 9 and Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira 1,2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dos Santos Silva et al., have studied the properties of soils after the application of composed sewage sludge. Therefore, it is a very interesting article due to the fact that from a circular economy perspective, utilizing these materials can be one of the most ecological and economical sludge disposal method. In this article the agricultural use CSS as an organic amendment has been reported to provide several benefits to agrosystems because the results demostrated that CSS can reduce mineral fertilizer requirements and improve the quality of cultivated soils. However, this application involves a series of environmental and human health risks, such as the accumulation of persistent organic pollutants or of trace metals in soil. In addition, it is important to study the consequences of the continuous application of CSS, specially on the concentration of heavy metals. Therefore, I consider that the article should expand the discussion and conclusion sections, mentioning the drawbacks of the continuous application of these materials in agricultural soils. In addition, the differences registered in the pH values, should be studied more thoroughly, and include in the discussion and conclusion sections the consequences of a change in the pH values of the soil due to the application of fertilizers at a global scale. There are several current articles on this subject.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
State-of-the-art is missing in the introduction section, need to be improve
Line no 75-76: authors used 9 references in one sentences, kindly avoide of using this, request author to please use the latest one 2-3.
Line no 133: subrface....it should be sub-surface
line no 143: kg ha-1 a.i , what is the meaning of a.i here
Line no 151-152: kg a.i. ha-1, unit should be same like above
See the heading of table one "Physical a and chemical b properties" please correct it what is a and b..plz delete it
Soil samples were collected prior to the experiment at depths of 0.0–0.25 and 0.25–0.50 m and characterized for physical and chemical properties......what is the logic behind it, plz explain
Resolution of fig 1 need to be improve
Line no 166-168: need to be supported by reference (see; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105667; Land Degradation and Development, https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3984 )
Conclusion need to be improve with future recommendation or implementation of present result at global scale
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
I have gone through the article and found that suggested two references not cited at the appropriate places.
Conclusion not written in fruitful way
Request authors to do the needful before acceptance.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to express our gratitude for the reviewer who took the time to provide such a thorough review of our manuscript. We believe that the changes suggested have made our manuscript much more direct and much easier to follow.
Thanks!
Point 1: “I have gone through the article and found that suggested two references not cited at the appropriate places.”
Response 1: Again, we appreciate your suggestion. However, as we mentioned before, the chemical analyses were performed in accordance with official procedures in Brazil. Therefore, it was used as the reference [32] (i.e., Raij, B.V.; Andrade, J.C.de; Cantarella, H.; Quaggio, J.A. Análise química para avaliação da fertilidade de solos tropicais, Instituto Agronômico/Fundação IAC, Campinas, Brazil, 2001; pp. 285.). Additionally, it is important to emphasize that all attributes such as organic matter and exchangeable aluminum (line 166-168) were evaluated in the soil samples according to the methodology described by Raij at al. (2001). For these reasons we would regret not being able to quote other references.
Point 2: “Conclusion not written in fruitful way”. Request authors to do the needful before acceptance.
Response 2: The Conclusions has been revised. Please see page 12 lines 361-369.
